S/D: Indian / Hindustani / Karnatik fusion music

Hell yes to Debashish Bhattacharya - particularly Calcutta Slide Guitar. Also yes to Joe Harriot! In a similar vein, Amancio D'Silva's Integration is magnificent.

Also really like Simon Shaheen & Vishwa Mohan Bhatt's Saltanah but that's pretty straight up classical.

Would Ry Cooder's record with VM Bhatt A Meeting by the River be too much of a stretch? Either way, it's great. XP!

see above! I think it's great. The going rates on the secondhand market for some of those Water Lily Acoustics CDs may surprise certain "CD is dead" types

We have a dedicated Indian classical thread, I'm pretty sure!

There are a couple but here is one: RFD: Indian music

the first CD by Colonial Cousins is like the perfect pop album to me

that Najma albums sounds amazing!

A Meeting by the River absolutely rules

If you dig that Najma album, I love this one even more. The arrangements are more Westernized, but also more colorful and cinematic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpI6qnFkxu0

I just picked this up and only listened once so can't quite fully recommend yet, but Sarathy Korwar's "My East Is Your West" gathers a group of Indian musicians to play Indo-jazz fusion classics by Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Don Cherry, etc.

City of Words off that Sarathy Korwar record is fire:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z_3t5un6sI

wow, it is indeed

xp thx, will def check out more Najma

S: saicobab - peculiar psych/indian/japanese mix: sitar, double bass, riq (tambourine) & yoshimi p-we on vox. lots of dazzling riffage, quite high energy and choppy

It's crazy to me how the western world really knows and understands none of this music. I don't think there's even a mention of Vilayat Khan or Nikhil Banerjee in the history of this board, despite the fact that they're probably the two most popular names in Hindustani classical following Ravi Shankar.

Not making a judgment either way necessarily, but it just seems like music obsessives are relatively well-versed in music from around the entire world, but Indian music is mostly a giant void.

Pretty easy to disprove your "no mention" supposition about the board via the search function -- maybe you're not aware that this is not the only thread on this topic? At any rate I'd wager it's less about a lack of interest and more about intimidation around the level of knowledge required to understand / enjoy / interpret this music, i.e. become "well-versed" in it. What books do you read? What websites? etc. The learning curve is, or at least appears to be, much steeper than in other cases imo.

And speaking personally, I feel like my knowledge of non-pop East Asian music is far far poorer -- not only can I not name the equivalent of Vilayat, I don't even really know how to categorize what I don't know.

Some other threads if you're actually curious:

Indian Classical
RFD: Indian music
Ravi Shankar
Carnatic Music Recommendations?

Plus various mentions on "world" music threads, long song threads, etc.

This thread is more about fusions but FWIW zacata, from Dec 15 to Jan 15, I watched/listened to at least one Carnatic concert a day via the virtual Kalakendra festival. I'm happy to talk about it (but prob on a Carnatic thread).

well this is bengali / bangla but really am fascinated with all aspects of this live session

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp6_RawHAD0

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/27/world/asia/pankaj-udhas-dead.html

Pankaj Udhas, Bollywood Singer and Maestro of the Ghazal, Dies at 72
His soulful renditions of ghazals, or traditional love poems, were featured on the soundtracks of hit Bollywood movies and moved generations of Indians.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdmKEX8fIWg

Sawani Mudgal and Khushal Sharma singing magnificently with tabla, mardal, & flute accompaniment live at Kennedy Center ( archived too)