Zakir Hussain, Kala Ramnath and Jayanthi Kumaresh named their 2022 tour Triveni for the mythical confluence of three sacred rivers – an analogy representing their own stitching together of northern and southern Indian musical traditions.

Seated on separate platforms inside a moderately sold Davidson Theatre April 19, the three virtuosos – Hussain (tabla), Ramnath (violin) and Kumaresh (Saraswati veena) – played a fully improvised, 95-minute set as colorful as the traditional purple, green and red clothing they wore.

It was the epitome of a once-in-a-lifetime musical experience.

Before starting, Hussain, a veteran of Mickey Hart’s Planet Drum, thanked the partially masked audience for helping the trio “experience what we’ve missed for two full years.” And then, the music did the talking.

Stationed between his collaborators, Hussain watched for unspoken cues – eye contact, hand gestures, sonic flourishes – like a spectator at a tennis match as Ramnath held her violin parallel to her body and Kumaresh’s veena produced the drone and squiggles of a sitar coupled with the tone of a western guitar.

In Hussain’s hands, the tabla sounds like two drum sets played with various implements rather than two skins played with fingers, palms and the base of the hand. He nodded to the Westerners in the audience by inserting a couple of measures of “Smoke on the Water” and “Ode to Joy” into a solo section which also found him offering a quick “bless you” to a sneezing fan.

Playing solo, in pairs and as a trio, the musicians created transcendent, made-in-the-moment music as if they were performing intricate compositions. They started and stopped in complete synchronicity, jumped into and out of the mix and occasionally returned to a couple of recurring themes that emerged throughout the evening.

All told, the musicians found welcoming paths of melodic music that happened to be made up on the spot – exhilarating explorations eliciting spontaneous applause and a standing ovation as they said their goodbyes and wished the audience safe travels.