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39 albums · 1956–2024

The sitar, from the gharanas of Hindustani music to film, jazz and the sixties

· 1 min read · by 1001 Albums

Ravi Shankar seated cross-legged with his sitar, George Harrison beside him, sheets of Indian notation pinned to the wall behind them
A carved sitar standing in a glass case, a photograph of Ravi Shankar playing behind itShujaat Khan singing with his eyes closed as he plays the sitar at a microphone on a dark stage
Ravi Shankar with his student George Harrison in Los Angeles, 1967. Photo: John Malmin, Los Angeles Times, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Ravi Shankar's sitar in the British Museum, London, 2024. Photo: Matt Brown, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Shujaat Khan in concert in Manchester, 2025. Photo: TimDuncan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The sitar is the long-necked lute of Hindustani music, the classical music of northern India and Pakistan: a gourd body, curved movable frets, six or seven playing strings plucked with a wire plectrum, and a dozen or more sympathetic strings beneath that ring with the notes. It is taught from teacher to student in the gharanas, the schools of a family and its line.

Ravi Shankar and Nikhil Banerjee learned at Maihar; Vilayat Khan and Imrat Khan came from the Imdadkhani gharana, which Shujaat Khan carries on. After Three Ragas in 1956 Ravi Shankar took the sitar to Europe and America, with Yehudi Menuhin, at Monterey in 1967 and with Philip Glass, and his daughter Anoushka Shankar plays it today. In the sixties it went into jazz, in Joe Harriott and John Mayer's Indo-Jazz Fusions and Gábor Szabó's Jazz Raga.

The list has 39 records from 1956 to 2024, more by Ravi Shankar and Anoushka Shankar than by others; many of the classical records are concerts released long after, dated by the years they were played. Pop songs with a sitar in them are left out, since it leads none of them. About 37 hours of music, 4 days of a few records each.

What it sounds like

Raga Kaushi KanraRanjit Makkuni, sitar, with Akram Khan, tabla

Recording: Ranjit Makkuni, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

By genre

Classical 21%Jazz 11%Rock 6%Other 62%
  • Classical 21%
  • Jazz 11%
  • Rock 6%
  • Other 62%

The genres named most: sitar, indian, hindustani classical, fusion, jazz, psychedelia.

The colours of the covers

A stripe for each cover, in the colour Tidal picks from it, sorted by hue; the greys at the end.

Where the music comes from

Music from 6 countries: India 30, United Kingdom 3, United States 3, Hungary 1, Iran 1 and 1 more. The deeper the colour, the more albums: one, two to four, five to nine, ten and more.

The 1950s

The 1960s

The 1970s

The 1980s

The 1990s

The 2000s

The 2010s

The 2020s

More lists

Lists of Instruments first, then others; all of them on the blog. The blog.

29 albums · 1976–2024

The kora of Mali, the harp-lute of the jeli

· 1 min read

The kora is the harp-lute of the jeli, the griots of Mali, Guinea, Senegal and the Gambia: 21 strings over a large calabash covered in cowhide, played with the thumbs and forefingers of both hands.

World 89%Blues 3%Classical 3%Other 5%
  • World 89%
  • Blues 3%
  • Classical 3%
  • Other 5%

Read and see the list