Good sitar music?

[briank]

I know I may be asking a bunch of questions, but I just found this site, and it would be great if you guys could help me in my search for some good tunes. I really love everyone's opinion on their favorite albums, which I'm using to hunt down some music.
I don't have a lot of psychedelic music in my collection, but I was listening to my (only) Beatles "Revolver" CD (namely, "Love You to") and I love the sound of the sitar. Can anyone give out the names of some good sitar musicians, the type that play sitar all the time, along with guitars, drums, etc? I think it's called "raga" music (due to the Indian origin of the sitar...?). I would love to hear some music with English lyrics, but if there's any good Indian musicians who just sing in another language or play without singing, that's cool. Thanks for any help!

[JPPMcStepBBlues]

Ravi Shankar......a defiant must listen

[briank]

Ravi Shankar......a defiant must listen

Any albums in particular?

[The Anarchist Beggar]

Hey i've just bought the Ravi Shankar Lp live at Intl. Monterey Pop Festival for 4$ and it's a really great album. Not only you feel the good vibe that was donw here, bu you also get some stunning performance from Shankar: music that looks like improvisation but which is classical music for centuries from india. However, I don't know if it's been released on Cd but you should chek out.

Good Luck

[Whenheco]

Hey i've just bought the Ravi Shankar Lp live at Intl. Monterey Pop Festival for 4$ and it's a really great album. Not only you feel the good vibe that was donw here, bu you also get some stunning performance from Shankar: music that looks like improvisation but which is classical music for centuries from india. However, I don't know if it's been released on Cd but you should chek out.

Good Luck

It has been released on CD but must be pretty hard to get these day's (OOP and such). His set at Woodstock must be out there too.

[Guest]

There is a live in San Francisco recording from 1967, around the same time of the Monterey Pop Festival which is good. Indian classical music is really long and extended and since most of his recordings originally come out on vinyl, there was usually room for only one really long raga. This recording has three and is live, which is what you want to hear. You wont believe his persision and stamina with the instrument. The release is called, Ravi Shankar In San Francisco.

[JPPMcStepBBlues]

oops, that last post was from me

[noelpne]

There is a series of CD's by an English Guy called 'D.J. Pathaan' - called
D.J. Pathaan presents Stoned Asia

--- Ive only got Volume 3 ( out of ,-- I don't know how many Volumes
there have been released up-to-now )

These were released on kickin records. Their web-site is http://www.kickin.co.uk & their e-mail is : info @kickin.co.uk

On this volume 3 I have, there are lots of styles/kinds of Indian music,
and Sitars feature on 4 out of 11 of the tracks. The first track is by
'Thievery Corporation' & was recorded at ESL studios,Washington DC
in 1997. Their web-site is http://www.eslmusic.com

The second track is by a Desmond Williams & was also from ESL

The third track is by 'Nicola Conte' which features Sitar by a Nicola
Nesta. Published and Licensed by Edizioni Ishtar SNC

The last of the 4 tracks to feature Sitar is by a group calling itself
'Indian Ropeman' - and they perform the old CREAM tune - 'Sunshine of
your Love' . This was licenced from Skint Records ( which is owned by
that English d.j. - 'Fat Boy Slim' - real name Norman Cook ) Their web-site is http://www.skint.net

Hope this helps.

[briank]

I'll keep an eye out for those Ravi Shankar albums (although I'm running low on cash now that I got a Pink Floyd CD, "Piper at the gates of dawn," and the excellent Quicksilver Messenger CD "Happy Trails"). Can anyone name any psychedelic bands from the 60s and 70s that made good (frequent) use of the sitar?

[noelpne]

Well Briank apart from tha odd Beatles tracks - there are a few Byrds
tracks that feature 'Eastern' themes - but dunno if they are exactly
'Sitar' . I think the favourite one is called ' Moog Raga '.

Such a very very hard thing to play - most groups at the time tried to aim for the'vibe' of the instrument rather than master the instrument itself.

As well as the above stuff ( have you gotten on to that Washington Studio yet? ) - there was also a lp by a group called 'Shakti' which featured the
virtuso guitarist John Magloughlin playing with Indian Musicians. I think
it was put out on C.B.S.

[hojucandy]

Meaning no disrespect, but ravi shankar is not considered to be a great sitarist. he was simply the first sitarist to become known to the west and made a big name as a result.

fortunately there are some great sitarists who are available on cd...

Vilayat Khan - recognised as the greatest. Any of his recordings are great - but esp the earlier ones (ie pre-80's)

Nikhil Banerjee - my personal favourite. His playing has a sobriety and lyricism that no-one else seems to achieve. Any recording is good.

Nayan Ghosh - a member of the younger generation of sitarists (and my teacher). innovative and very melodic music.

Buddhaditya Mukherjee - another young gun. probably the fastest sitarist on the planet. Earlier recordings are the most interesting.

A search of the web shpuld locate some sources for these recordings. I'd also recommend you visit http://www.ragarecords.com where yu can purchase CD's by Nikhil Banerjee and Nayan Ghosh (and several other Indian musicians). They also have some very good mp3 files yu can download.

[Guest]

I can't think of any albums that have sitar in every song, but I can think of some good songs with sitar played in them that haven't been mentioned yet.

Rolling Stones: Paint It Black and Velvet Underground: Venus In Fur.

You might also check out the box set: Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From the First Psychedelic Era. It has several songs that are psychedelic--some with sitar. You should also check out George Harrison's solo stuff. He was the Beatle that was specially interested in Eastern Music. Ravi and George Harrison also produced the first charity concert for humanity in 1971, Concert For Bangladesh, which is on CD. He even toured the U.S. with Ravi Shankar in 1974. Also, Ravi performed on the Concert for George which is on CD and DVD.

[Guest]

Well, damn! I forgot to log in. That previous post was from me, if you have any questions.

[RememberWhat theDarmaSays]

For the second time, I wasn't logged in for either for some reason, I posted the previous, two posts, if you have any questions, PM me.

[liltawen]

A friend of mine's dad runs a company called 'sitarsetc.com'They mainly sell sitars,etc but they might be able to tell you about some good players.