i notice that when you folks talk about indian classical, the discussion is mostly confined to north indian classical or "hindustani" music. i guess there is not much awareness of "carnatic" or south indian classical music in the west?
for more on carnatic music, including possible concerts near you, see: http://www.cmana.org/
zakir hussain will be in the US this year, at princeton in may (iirc). he might be touring other spots too.
> Zakir Hussain plays on some classical recordings as well as some
> world-music/jazz fusion. Since we've danced about wrt the topic of Indian
> classical music I must of course recommend Shakti, the John McLaughin and
> Zakir Hussain acoustic jazz+Indian music group. I was too young for
> Shakti's first incarnation in the 70s but was privileged to see them
> a couple of years ago. There is something otherworldy about the way
> McLaughlin and Hussain play together, almost as if there's some kind of
> psychic connection. It was like Coltrane and Elvin Jones.
talking about fusion music, i didnt see anyone mention philip glass and ravi shankar. if you are into this stuff (and i am not, so i don't have any good info) also check out trilok gurtu. as for the original request, indian movie soundtracks, which tend to be rather different from indian classical or fusion music, are available as CDs at many indian shops. see this website:
they have some realaudio (you will need realplayer) files of movie songs from the 40s onward, and separate sections on classical music, ghazals, etc.
--ravi