Indian Sitar Stuff

Ry Cooder has an album with sitar. Excellent

If you enjoy Indian classical sitar music, expand your musical horizon slightly to include an instrument called the Sarod. It's a good sized lute like instrument with a most interesting timbre. Some astounding virtuosos play the Sarod, Ali Akbar Khan and Buddadev das Gupta come to mind first. Water Lily Acoustics has Ali Akbar Khan on vinyl as well as other good albums featuring Indian musicians collaborating with western artists. They are all good, no dogs. You are going to really limit yourself though if you insist on vinyl. There are many importers of Indian classical music but vinyl is nearly impossible to find in my experience. Don't be afraid to buy artists you are not familiar with, the system for schooling/cultivating Indian musicians is so strong that it is virtually impossible to find anything less than exceptional musicianship.

Back again, a couple more things. Another Sitar artist worth checking out is Collin Walcott, who recorded for ECM back in the 80's. I found a couple of his lp's at my local music store and they are worthwhile listening. Sitar jazz if you will. This is a category of music collecting that will require scoping out Ebay listings. If you do a "sarod" or "sitar" search in Ebay music, there are Shankar/Ali Khan collaborations on vinyl available now.

Photon, thanks for the suggestions. I figured that I migh tbe limiting myself with respect to "only on vinyl" and half expected very little produced much after the early 80's. I will serach for the titles you suggest.

There are three labels you will want to look for. The first is anything on Connoisseur Society. They are superbly recorded and there are special 45rpm editions of some of the LPs. This was being done back in the 60s and early 70s! All tube mastered too. Ali Akbar Khan was on this label.

The second label is of course EMI, who maintained recording studios in India. They recorded a complete series of many musicians and the recordings are gold. The India-pressed recordings (from Dum Dum, India) are excellent. Vilayat Khan, the unchallenged master of the Sitar, was on this label.

Nonesuch also produced some interesting recordings that should not be ignored. Sound quality is quite good.

I've not run into any recordings on World Pacific that were particularly impressive, although some of them are interesting due to the unusual nature of some of the material.

Have fun!