Went to see a live performance of North Indian classical music!

Last night I went to see live, two world renowned musicians (can't remember their names) play the sitar and tabla. I really enjoyed it, 

The Sitarist explained that in North Indian classical music there is the raga & talla (spelling?) melody and rhythm or beat cycle. I found it interesting that the tabla player's rhythm was constantly changing. There was no 4/4 or 6/8 time signature etc. the tabla was played more like a rhythmic melody then it a simple rhythm. Anyways, the music was nice and relaxing, only complaint was that the guy doing the sound had it turned up a little bit too much for my liking. 
Anyways just thought I'd share.

Hi,
 
Now imagine this done with rock musicians ... and the DAW needs to be turned off for a while!
 
It's hard, because too much of "western music" is based strictly on the beat ... and nothing else. And that tends to limit the extent of the music and the experience ... which is one of my complaints here when I mention music that has no daw, no beat, and different time sequences ... I am not sure that many folks will ever be able to experience that music ... and in my book, they are really missing out!
 
I got to see, many eons ago, Ravi Shankar and Yehudi Menuhin in their "East Meets West" tour ... and to this day ... the old ladies' perfume is still smelling in Chicago with them complaining about "all that improvisation ... how can you call that music!".
 
I would hate to see that happen here, and today ... there is way too much "commercial music" and not enough experimentation and ability to learn from it.
 
Check out the thread on intuitive music ... quite similar to this one in many ways and I even posted an example from Jon McLaughlin ... and he is one of the few that is totally unafraid of playing with many of these "eastern" masters in music ... one other I can think of right away is Jan Garbarek. 
 
The tendency, however, is to always call this stuff, some kind of jazz, because you have to label it ... and in many ways, Jon, or Jan, are not jazz for th emost part. Jan does have his various jazz projects going all the time, but if you check his discography, half his albums are all experimental, and playing with folks from all over ... some of his best work coming with a Brazilian on 8-10 and 12 string guitars he himself built! ... Egberto Gismonti! 
 
Maybe one day I can get some one from here sit through the Missa Luba and not think that it is some kind of devil worship music! Or the Pipes of Pan of Joujouka ... for a horrible title ... which tells you more what the "western civilization" really thought of all those "savages" ... music?