The Rough Guide to Indian Classical Music

This album features a line-up of some distinguished musicians of North and South Indian music, two distinct classical traditions. Among them are Shivkumar Sharma on santoor (zither) and Hariprasad Chaurasia on bansuri (bamboo flute), who team up with Brij Bhushan Kabra on slide guitar. Two legendary maestros, Bismillah Khan on shehnai (a sort of oboe) and sitar legend Vilayat Khan perform a rarely heard duet in the form of a light-classical dhun (tune) in the Punjabi style. There's a memorable ‘Raga Devgiri Bilawal’ from sitar's best known exponent, Ravi Shankar, while his one-time regular accompanist Allah Rakha performs a percussion-only track in a duet with his son Zakir Hussain in the ektaal 12-beat cycle. Amjad Ali Khan delivers a historic and lyrically inspired ‘Raga Chhaya Nat’ on sarod, a lute derived from the Afghani rabab. South Indian musicians U Srinavas, the mandolin wizard, Jyotsna Srikanth on violin and the prodigious composer-performer M Balamuralikrishna separately provide some choice pieces from the Karnatic (South Indian) repertoire.

India's classical music is a vast and varied canvas and while this album focuses mainly on instrumental music, it nevertheless succeeds in highlighting an array of some of its greatest stars performing some of the best-known ragas of both traditions. Not only would it make a great starting point for the uninitiated but it could also be a very welcome addition to the collections of aficionados. The bonus album is one from Debashish Bhattacharya.