Indian Sitar Stuff

I have a small collection of classical Indian CDs. A sitar on a bad sounding system or badly recorded will send you to the off button quicker than anything. To date, the best sounding CD I have found is:

Imrat Khan (surbahar & sitar)
Shafaatullah Khan (tabla)
Raga Marwas
Nimbus Records

The surbahar is a "bass" sitar. Nice sound!

Nonesuch, Ryko, Water Lilly Acoustics, Nimbus, EMI all offer some great recordings. Will have to check out Connoisseur Society.

I live in San Diego, CA and fortunately Ravi Shankar does too. He plays the local venues between world tours and I've seen him about once a year for 7 years or so. Unfortunately he is ~87 and the last time I saw him he had FINALLY slowed down. Maybe he was just nurturing his shoulder injury.

I don't listen to Ravi much at home, but a live performance is an incredible experience not to miss.

I'm very interested in others selections of Indian and other "world" music on indigenous instruments playing "originals" from the 14th century, or whatever. I'll post some additional favorite recordings soon, but consider:

Hamza El Din (oud / 4 string, fretless lute)
ESCALAY (The Water Wheel).
oud and tabla, a bit of vocals. wow! Nubian, not Indian, but check it out.

The *Moment* label (CD) is dedicated to Indian music, and similar, employs audiophile recording equipment, some recordings live. Very good sound.