if you like world music

One of my most treasured CD’s since the early 1990’s is Zakir Hussain, “Magical Moments of Rhythm.”

HERE. (I recommend sampling the 3rd song, “Sultan Khan,” though they don’t let you hear Zakir going totally bezerk on the tablas in the sample like he does later in the song.)

This came at the recommendation of my youngest brother, who was a University of Iowa radio station d.j. for awhile and a pretty good authority on music of the Middle East as well as India and Pakistan.

In that capacity, he was able to get me the free tickets to Ravi Shankar in Iowa City in 1993, which was an almost disturbingly good concert. None of us who went could think of one thing that should have been different about it. Better yet, Shankar was nice enough to grant my brother an interview for his radio show the next day.