Probably best known as founder and guitarist for the groundbreaking free rock/jazz group OM in the early 70s, Christy Doran has made a career taking the guitar to challenging, provocative places and shows the same sort of adventurous drive as a composer. His latest in a string of stimulating collaborations is a duet with tabla ace Imran Khan titled Disambiguation.
Khan comes from the Delhi Gharana school of Hindustani tabla playing — one of the oldest styles of table playing — but he’s very modern-minded, making him a great partner for Doran’s forward-looking outlook on guitar.
Disambiguation (Challenge Records) defies neat characterization because it’s a little bit of a lot of things. The long-time Swiss resident Doran makes nods to his Irish roots on a few tunes, and both his rock and jazz sides invariably come out as well. Obviously, there’s a South Asian flavor to this as well, but all of these streams come together naturally, no one is forcing genres into the music. It just happens.
If Ralph Towner and Collin Walcott had spun off from Oregon to form their own duo, you might be in the ballpark of what Doran and Khan had done here. But Doran and Khan aren’t interested in chamber-like new-age atmospherics or hippie ‘n’ sandals jazz (not that there’s anything wrong with that); they attack their material with enough vigor to take up the sonic space of a full band at times. The tabla being both a tonal and percussion instrument makes that possible and Khan takes full advantage of that.
“Disambiguation” charges right out the gate, both participants locked in together on the galloping groove. Even for the winding “Ode To Johnny Doran” Doran assumes an aggressiveness that at times recall early John McLaughlin but it’s ultimately Doran’s own style with sharp rhythmic punctuations, rapid runs and attention to melody. Further, traces of the Uilleann pipe melodies popularized by the song’s famous Irish namesake can be heard here.
“The Day They Came” transits through several tempos, Doran easily adapting to the mood changes cued up by Khan. Doran introduces an electric guitar for “Continuum V” (and goes electric from here on out), continuing to use arpeggiated chords and circular figures to add notes to Khan’s rhythm. Somewhere along the way, Doran introduces a new melodic fragment before returning to the original motif.
Khan gets his own time for solo tabla, called “Taal Pravaah,” showing off extraordinary preciseness and pliability. The electric guitar of Doran takes the full stage for the first couple of minutes of “Mantra On An Irish Stream” before Khan edges his way in. At that point, Doran deftly manipulates the pedal effects of his guitar to resembles a saraswati veena, creating Indian Carnatic music with Khan and his tabla. “Haute Savoie” on the other hand, leans into hearty, 70s-styled Western rock-jazz fusion.
“Dark Slender Boy” is another traditional Irish-type strain, where Doran applies a Hendrix-ian stream of consciousness and the closely-attuned Khan is going with Doran’s rubato flow.
Christy Doran’s encounter with tabla player Imran Khan made genre-less music that can best be described as guitar and tabla music of the highest order. Best of all, they made all this virtuosity fun to listen to.
Disambiguation is set to go on sale October 2, 2026 and the CD can be ordered from here.
- Christy Doran + Imran Khan – ‘Disambiguation’ (2026) - October 2, 2026
- Brandon Seabrook feat. Bill Frisell – ‘Utility Modern’ (2026) - October 1, 2026
- Camila Nebbia’s The Hanged One – ‘Limbo’ (2026) - September 24, 2026
