Indian Music?

Great recommendations. Here's a few more:

My favorite Indian performance is probably a collaboration with Ravi Shankar and Yehudi Menuhin called West Meets East -- riveting. His raga collection "From Dusk to Dawn" is also nice.

For fans of 'A Meeting...' VM Bhatt has another fine recording on Water Lily called 'Saradamani.' He also has another with Taj Mahal called 'Mumtaz Mahal' theat serves as my reference for soundstaging.

Shiv Kumar Sharma (playing santoor): 'The Valley Recalls' with Hariprasad Chaurasia (flute). Both have many fine recordings.

Kalhor and Khan: 'Ghazal'; also 'Moon rise....'

Ali Akbar Khan -- my favorite (musically) is 'Journey,' but there was a 'signature series' remastered by Bob Ludwig and Mark Levinson that has wonderful sonics.

I'll recommend these artists. First among many who I love is the master of the sarod, Buddhadev Das Gupta. His improvisational ability is unparalleled. He builds his ragas with emotionally charged energy that is amazing. His Nimbus recordings are great, but I've never heard a bad one. I've got every one of his cd's that are listed with pictures on the first page of the Amazon.com listing for him and they all are great.

I really like the Sarod. Tejendra Naranyan Majumdar is also a great ambassador for the instrument. His Raga Hem Behag on the India Archive Label is a good one. In fact, every disc I've bought on that label is great.

Another fine artist is Shiv Kumar Sharma, a virtuoso player of the Indian hammered dulcimer (Santoor.) His evening raga Janasammohini on the Realworld label is a great place to start.

For something a bit less common, the Vina player Chiiti Babu's "The Art of the Vina" on the Seven Seas label is excellent. This one always amazes me with it's bluesy feeling. This one is out of print, but Amazon has more.

I had the pleasure of seeing Budhaditya Mukherjee live on my birthday ten years ago and that was the most incendiary live concert I've ever seen in any musical genre. His performance was if you combined Stevie Ray Vaughn's power with Jascha Heifitz's precision and technical prowess. Again, Nimbus records is a good label for him, see Amazon.com.

The bottom line is that you are not likely to find ANY recordings by an Indian classical artist that a subpar musically. The master/student system functions so rigorously that I don't think it's possible for any one to make to the recording studio that doesn't measure up to the high standards generations of prior musicians laid down. At least that's the way master musicians visiting our university's music department have presented their system of artist development.

I can't claim to know anything about classical Indian, but I have listened to it many hours and have a small collection.

Imrat Khan, Raga Marwa, Nimbus Records

Dhruba Ghosh, Sarangi, Bowing Sounds from Dawn to Moonlight,Fonti Musical

The Sounds of India (details unknown, cannot locate just now)

Ravi Shankar lives about 15 miles from me and typically plays a local venue each year. I've seen him about 6x now and look forward to seeing him again. I think he is 89 now and struggling with health. Jackson Brown (another local) has been on the front row of many of these concerts.

HERE ARE % EXCELLENT SUGGESTIONS:
1. Anything by the great Nikhil Banerjee (there isn't much, he died young)
2. All of the 'signature series' recordings of Ali Akbar Khan on his own label
3. On Nimbus records, anything by Asad Ali Khan
4. Anything by Z.M. Dagar, the great Rudra Vina player
5. "Midnight" by Pandit Pran Nath

If you can find "Paris Concert" on DVD grab it. Features Shawn Lane (guitar) and Jonas hellborg (bass). Lane absolutely smokes em on guitar in this one.