Five Indians feature on list of world's greatest music ever Malvika Nanda [email protected] NEW DELHI:
Good news for Indian music aficionados. Five Indian artistes have made it to Amazon.com's 100 Greatest World Music albums of all time. The list includes albums of Asha Bhosle, Ustaad Ali Akbar Khan, Shujaat Hussain Khan and A.R. Rahman. They share space with some of the most respected world musicians like Bob Marley, French-Algerian Rachid Taha and Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Amazon.com is an American multinational elec tronic commerce company and a major online music and video retailer. The highest scoring Indian artiste on the list -n not surprisingly -- is Pandit Ravi Shankar, whose album The Ravi Shankar Collection: Live... sits at number 20. Rahman's Lagaan soundtrack is on number 44, while Bhosle's Precious Platinum that was released last year is on number 37. On number 38 is revered sarod player Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, who along with his colleague Shankar is known to have popularised Indian classical music in the west. Bhosle's son and manager, Anand, speaking to HT from Bahrain, said: "It was for her 75th birthday last year. She put her best foot forward... and in spite of negligible promotion in India, it has made it to the Amazon 100... list." While these albums are all on Indian labels, 2004Grammy nominated sitar player Ustad Shujaat Husain Khan has made it to number 52 with his fusion album on an American label. The album Lost Songs Of The Silk Road by Ghazal features a beautiful synthesis of Indian and Persian music. While calling it an honour Khan said it's time the Indian government made a note too.
