Written by: Haroon Shuaib
Posted on: August 16, 2021 | 
| 中文
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and his troupe during his famous WOMAD festival performance in 1985
Undisputed Shahenshah-e-Qawwal, or the King of the Kings of Qawwali, born 1948 in Faisalabad as Pervez (Peji) Fateh Ali Khan, died on August 11, 1997, as Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Hailing from a family where Qawwali was practiced for 600 years, his father, Fateh Ali Khan, a capable classical singer, soon realised that Nusrat was destined to take his legacy forward. The young boy took up music by playing tabla (a percussion instrument) for Munawar Ali Khan, son of legendary vocalist Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan – something that contributed to Nusrat’s incredible command over the subcontinental tradition of composition based on an intricate arithmetical system of “Taal” (beat). He then progressed to learn Raag Vidya (knowledge of Raagas) and Bolbandish (vocals). From his first public performance as a Qawwal at the age of 16, Nusrat emerged as the strongest influence from Pakistan on the world of music.
Nusrat Recording at Bidi Studios in Paris, 1993
Once he established himself as the greatest Qawwal the country has produced, Nusrat’s popularity started to spill across continents. His performance at the “World of Music, Arts, and Dance Festival, London” in 1985 introduced his genius to the global audience. This was when world music was being established as a new category of sound, transcending geographical, linguistic, and cultural divides. Nusrat appeared as the most prominent flag bearer of South Asian sound.
Talking exclusively to Youlin, Khan’s nephew, prodigy, and a musical figure of global prominence in his own right, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, who toured with his uncle’s qawwali troupe as a young disciple, recalls, “I have seen people around the world going into a state of transcendence without understanding a single word of a qawwali that Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan sang. I have seen the largest and most prestigious venues across the world fill up to full capacity to listen to Khan sahib. I witnessed mainstream artists sitting on the floor, listening to Khan sahib’s Alaap (Vocal renditions) and writing songs for him then and there, synching western instruments with his compositions and voice.”
Nusrat and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan
As he matured as a performer, Nusrat made various adjustments to his style, such as increasing the tempo, as a means to elevate qawwali to a new level of aesthetic and spiritual resonance with contemporary and international audiences. Ally Adnan, who writes and lectures about qawwali and classical music all over the world elaborated, “Nusrat popularized qawwali by making it accessible, understandable and relatable to listeners not only in South Asia but all over the world. Qawwali has been sung traditionally in a number of rhytmic cycles like dadra, keherwa, sulfahta, roopak, jhaptal, ektala, farodast, arha chautala and teentaal. Nusrat preferred the keherwa - or, more specifically the qawwali taal invented by Amir Khusrau - whose structure is well known and understood all over the world. This help made his qawwali easy to appreciate all over the world and, hence, popular. He also used alankars (ornamentation in music) that were universally known and popular as opposed to ones that were exotic and esoteric. Qawwali has many forms like qalbana, qaul, hawa, gul, naqsh, nigar, baseet and also employs genres like geet, ghazal, khayal, tirwat, tarana, thumri, dadra, chaturang and many others. Nusrat, however, primarily stuck to the geet and ghazal forms that were most popular. In terms of poetry, qawwali uses geet, ghazal, hamd, wasokht, doha, naat, qataa, musaddas, qissa, and virtually all genres of poetry. Nusrat chose poetic genres that large numbers of people understood and liked. The greatest strength of Nusrat qawwali was his ability to build an incredible rapport with his listeners. Since the primary purpose of Qawwali is to transfer the message of love from the qawwal to the listener. This is an essential, if rare, trait in qawwals. This is where Nusrat excelled and this is the primary reason, in my opinion, of his immense popularity.”
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan performing
Dr. Pierre-Alain Baud, a researcher, academic and author who spent years with Nusrat while writing his biography, “Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the Messenger of Qawwali”, said,” I do not fully understand the mystery of his song, but an intimate resonance intrigues and unnerved me as soon as he sat down, cross-legged on the stage and hurled out his mad love song to the Divine. He had innumerable facets: enigmatic and innocent, colossal and peaceful, inspired and ordinary, all parts of the same person who inflamed myriads of spectators in Lahore, Paris, Florence, Tokyo or New York with the greatest of ease.”
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan during a Performance
The vertiginous sound that Nusrat created was so spellbinding, that many Hollywood A-listers also lined up to use his music and vocals. He collaborated on a studio album “Night Song” with Canadian composer Michael Brook, and went on to contribute to film soundtracks. His work with Peter Gabriel on Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Temptation of Christ”, and “Natural Born Killers” penned by Tarantino, opened Hollywood to leveraging his genius further. The collaborations transcended genres, from Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder and Bruce Springsteen in films like ‘Face of Love’ and ‘Dead Man Walking’, to Mick Jagger, Jeff Buckley, Madonna, Pavarotti, Zayn Malik, Joan Osborn and A.R. Rahman.
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Famed Folk Singer, Jeff Buckley
Nusrat’s global appeal allowed him to perform in over 40 countries, and acquire many titles of honor. Dr. Baud wrote, “Singing Buddha in Tokyo, Quintessence of the human voice in Tunis, The Voice of Paradise in Los Angeles, The Spirit of Islam in London, Pavarotti of the East in Paris, and Shahenshah-e-Qawwali in Lahore. Over the space of about 15 years, this chosen singer, one of God’s madmen, one of God’s sweetest, shot to planetary fame. A man of superlatives: weight (impressive), octaves (six, supposedly), albums (125 at the beginning of the 1990s according to the Guinness book of records, maybe twice that many by now), videos that can be consulted on the Internet site YouTube (over 2,000, certain of which have been viewed a million times in a single year), concerts (by the thousands), Google references (hundreds of thousands), cassettes and CDs (by the millions).”
In 1995, Nusrat was awarded the UNESCO Music award and in 1996, the Grand Prix des Amériques at the Montreal World Film Festival and the Arts and Culture Prize of the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prizes for his contribution to the world of music. In 1997, 'Intoxicated Spirit' was nominated for a Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album. In the same year 'Night Song' was also nominated for a Grammy for Best World Music Album. In 2005, Khan posthumously received the "Legends" award at the UK Asian Music Awards. In 2006, Time magazine’s issue of “60 Years of Asian Heroes”, placed him amongst the top 12 artists and thinkers. He appeared on NPR's 50 great voices list, and was also included in CNN's list of the twenty most iconic musicians from the past fifty years in 2010.
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan With Composer Michael Brook
According to Sharif Awan, a curator and producer of classical, folk and world music, the qawwal’s success lay in his discipline and focus of his craft. “Nusrat’s command over classical music, qawwali and his tayyari (preparation) was unparalleled, as he would at times sing for 10 hours at a stretch. This enabled him to innovate and improvise, to make qawwali relevant for the modern and younger audience. He could afford the luxury of experimentation and collaboration while remaining in the form, and discover new avenues for the qawwals coming after him. Also, he was lucky as an artist with good managers and promoters, allowing him to solely focus on producing music and discovering new dimensions of sound. The wealth of music he created in a short period is unmatched.”
Even after two decades of his demise, Nusrat continues to inspire new musicians around the world. The way he channelized his disciplined training with spiritual charisma and experimented to popularize the arcane qawwali format has continued to enthrall the artists and the audience alike. He left an unmatchable legacy and a breath of work, through which he can still move people with his praises of Love for the Divine.
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