Indian Sitar Stuff

MS, you make a very salient point with respect ot length of piece. Thanks

Anyone interested in Santoor? The artist to lookout for is Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma and is the best santoor player in the world. I have his recording which is superb "Music of the Mountains". One of his best selling album is "The call of the Valley". This album is difficult to find but absolute gem.

The Indian Flutest to look out for is Pandit Hari Prasad Churasia, he is considered the best when it comes to traditional indaian bamboo flute. He had collaborated with Zakir Hussain, John McLaughlin and Jan Garberek on the album "Making Music" which is available on ECM, An absolutely wonderful album. The sonics are first rate as well. This is my reference CD when it comes to Indian Music.

Bhatt has already been mentioned so will refrain from any comment except, he is really good! For those who may want to see him performing live, they can get the Eric Clapton's DVD entitled Guitar Festival and on disc two his is the first performance.

I will come back with some more suggestions later after going through my collection, getting forgetful nowadays ;)

This doesn't fall into the category of "classical" Indian music, but if you like that influence in your music, you might check out the CDs "Jubilee" (Harry Manx and Kevin Breit) and "Wise and Otherwise" (Harry Manx) for music that melds Indian influences with the blues.

Quadophile, I'm in total agreement with your enthusiasm for Shiv Kumar Sharma's Santoor playing. It's wonderful, sublime music. I've got half a dozen of his cd's and they are all winners. Musicslug is giving good advice. The long, slow, quiet buildup of a raga's introductory section and the length of the ragas give the cd format some advantages over vinyl. This is coming from someone who prefers vinyl usually.

Todster,

Shiv Kumar Sharma's music is based on Ragas particularly his album "Music of the mountains" is based on Raag "Pahari", (Pahar in hindi means mountain) and it certainly falls in the category of classical or to be more precise, light classical.

"Making Music" is certainly not pure classical.