Home > History & Culture > Pakistani Music > Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
 Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan October 13, 1948 – August 16, 1997), was a Pakistani musician, primarily a singer of Qawwali, the devotional music of the Sufis (a mystical tradition within Islam). He featured in Time magazine's 2006 list of 'Asian Heroes'. Among other honorary titles bestowed upon him, Nusrat was called Shahenshah-e-Qawwali, meaning The Emperor of Qawwali.
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was born on October 13, 1948 in the city of Faisalabad, Pakistan. He was the fifth child and first son of Ustad Fateh Ali Khan, a distinguished and legendary musicologist, vocalist, instrumentalist, and Qawwal. Nusrat's family, which included his four older sisters and his younger brother, Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan grew up in central Lyallpur, in a small flat which was rented from a local businessman. In 1979, Nusrat married his first cousin, Naheed (the daughter of Fateh Ali Khan's brother, Salamat Ali Khan); they had one daughter, Nida.
Qawwali is a performance art that has traditionally been passed down within families. Nusrat's family has an unbroken tradition of performing Qawwali for approximately 600 years[citation needed]. Nusrat's father was initially reluctant to allow him to enter the family business, instead hoping his son would become a doctor or an engineer, having felt Qawwals had a low social status. However, Nusrat's enthusiasm for Qawwali eventually persuaded his father to train him in the art. Nusrat began by learning to play tabla alongside his father before progressing to learn Raag Vidya and Bolbandish. He then went on to learn to sing within the classical framework of khayal in the Qawwal Bachchon Ka Gharana and was taught dhrupad from the Dagar family. Khan's training with his father was cut short when his father died in 1964, leaving Nusrat's paternal uncles, Ustad Mubarak Ali Khan and Ustad Salamat Ali Khan, to complete his training.
 His first performance was at a traditional graveside ceremony for his father, known as chehlum, which took place forty days after his father's death. In 1971, after the death of Ustad Mubarak Ali Khan, Nusrat became the official leader of the family Qawwali party and the party became known as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Mujahid Mubarak Ali Khan & Party. Nusrat assumed leadership of the party, despite the fact that Mujahid Mubarak Ali Khan, who was Ustad Mubarak Ali Khan's son, was considerably older than him.
Nusrat's first public performance as the leader of the Qawwali party was at a studio recording broadcast as part of an annual music festival organised by Radio Pakistan, known as Jashn-e-Baharan. Nusrat went on to distinguish himself from other Qawwals and became renowned on the Indian subcontinent and in the Muslim world. He sang mainly in Urdu and Punjabi and occasionally in Persian, Brajbhasha and Hindi. His first major hit in Pakistan was the song Haq Ali Ali, which was performed in a traditional style and with traditional instrumentation. The song featured restrained use of Nusrat's sargam improvisations and attracted a large number of listeners.
Early in his career, Nusrat was signed up by Oriental Star Agencies [OSA] of Birmingham UK to their Star Cassette Label. OSA sponsored regular concert tours by Nusrat to the U.K. from the early '80s onwards, and released much of this live material (albeit not always very well recorded) on cassette, CD, videotape and DVD. The vast majority of Nusrat's qawwali performances that are available today in video format on various labels comes from these OSA-sponsored concert tours.
Nusrat reached out to Western audiences through his work with Peter Gabriel on the soundtrack to The Last Temptation of Christ in 1985, his collaborations with Canadian musician Michael Brook (on the albums Mustt Mustt (1990) and Night Song (1996)), and his work with Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder in 1995 on two songs for the soundtrack to Dead Man Walking. He also contributed to the soundtrack of Natural Born Killers. Nusrat was unhappy with the use of his vocals on the Natural Born Killers soundtrack, stating that the nature of the film was contrary to the beliefs and the ideals conveyed in his work.
Peter Gabriel's Real World label later released five albums of Nusrat's traditional Qawwali, together with some of his experimental work which included the albums Mustt Mustt and Star Rise. Nusrat provided vocals for The Prayer Cycle, which was put together by Jonathan Elias, but died before the vocals could be completed. Alanis Morissette was brought in to sing with his unfinished vocals. He also performed traditional Qawwali before international audiences at several WOMAD world music festivals and the single Dam Mast Qalandar was remixed by electronic trip hop group Massive Attack in 1998.
His album Intoxicated Spirit was nominated for a Grammy award in 1997 for best traditional folk album.
When Nusrat toured in foreign countries, he would watch television commercials in order to identify the melodies and chord progressions popular in that country. He would then try to choose similar sounding songs from his repertoire for his performances.[citation needed] After his death, the song "Solemn Prayer", on which Nusrat provided vocals, was used by Peter Gabriel on his album Up and in the soundtrack to the film Blood Diamond.
 Nusrat reached out to Western audiences through his work with Peter Gabriel on the soundtrack to The Last Temptation of Christ in 1985, his collaborations with Canadian musician Michael Brook (on the albums Mustt Mustt (1990) and Night Song (1996)), and his work with Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder in 1995 on two songs for the soundtrack to Dead Man Walking. He also contributed to the soundtrack of Natural Born Killers. Nusrat was unhappy with the use of his vocals on the Natural Born Killers soundtrack, stating that the nature of the film was contrary to the beliefs and the ideals conveyed in his work.
Peter Gabriel's Real World label later released five albums of Nusrat's traditional Qawwali, together with some of his experimental work which included the albums Mustt Mustt and Star Rise. Nusrat provided vocals for The Prayer Cycle, which was put together by Jonathan Elias, but died before the vocals could be completed. Alanis Morissette was brought in to sing with his unfinished vocals. He also performed traditional Qawwali before international audiences at several WOMAD world music festivals and the single Dam Mast Qalandar was remixed by electronic trip hop group Massive Attack in 1998.
When Nusrat toured in foreign countries, he would watch television commercials in order to identify the melodies and chord progressions popular in that country. He would then try to choose similar sounding songs from his repertoire for his performances.[citation needed] After his death, the song "Solemn Prayer", on which Nusrat provided vocals, was used by Peter Gabriel on his album Up and in the soundtrack to the film Blood Diamond.
Nusrat possessed a six-octave vocal range and could perform at a high-level of intensity for several hours.
Nusrat contributed songs to, and performed in, several Pakistani films. Shortly before his death, he recorded a song each for two Bollywood films, Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya (in which he also appeared) and Kachche Dhaage. He also sang the immensely-popular title song of the film, Dhadkan. There was also a song sung by him in the movie Kartoos, starting Sanjay Dutt and Manisha Koirola
Nusrat contributed the song 'Gurus of Peace' to the album 'Vande Mataram', composed by Oscar-winning composer A.R. Rahman, and released to celebrate the 50th anniversary of India's independence.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan holds the world record for the largest recorded output by a Qawwali artist—a total of 125 albums as of 2001. Since then, many posthumous albums have been released, but an accurate count of the total number of albums is not available.
Nusrat was taken ill with kidney and liver failure on August 11, 1997 in London, England while on the way to Los Angeles in order to receive a kidney transplant. Nusrat died of a sudden cardiac arrest at Cromwell Hospital, London, on Saturday, August 16, 1997, aged 48, at the height of his career. His body was returned to Faisalabad, Pakistan and his funeral was attended by thousands of people.
Nusrat is responsible for the modern evolution of Qawwali. Though not the first to do so, he popularized the blending of khayal singing and techniques with Qawwali. This, in short, took the form of improvised solos during the songs using the sargam technique, in which the performer sings the names of the notes he is singing. He also attempted to blend Qawwali music with more western styles such as electronic music.
Nusrat's Qawwali usually follows the standard form. A song begins with a short instrumental prelude played on the harmonium, accompanied by percussion. Then the instruments refrain, and the main singers launch into the alap, which establishes the raag, the tonal structure of the music. At this point, introductory poetic verses are sung. These are usually drawn not from the main song, but from thematically related songs. The melody is improvised within the structure of the raag.
After the introductory verses, the main song starts, and the rhythmic portion of the song begins. The tabla and dholak begin to play, and the chorus aids and abets percussion by clapping their hands. The song proceeds in a "call and response" format. The same song may be sung quite differently by different groups. The lyrics will be essentially the same, but the melody can differ depending on which gharana or lineage the group belongs to. As is traditional in Qawwali, Nusrat and the side-singers will interject alap solos, and fragments of other poems or even improvised lyrics. A song usually has two or three sets of refrains, which can be compared to the verse chorus structure found in western music. Songs last about twenty minutes on average, with a few lasting an hour or more.
Nusrat was noted for introducing other forms of improvisation into the style. From his classical music training, he would interject much more complex alap improvisations, with more vibrato and note bending. He would also interject sargam improvisations.
While it is undoubtedly difficult to put into words what makes Nusrat's music so deeply appealing to so many listeners, many of whom do not understand a single word of the languages he sings in, here is one fan's attempt to explain: "Nusrat's music invites us to eavesdrop on a man communing with his God, ever so eloquently. He makes the act of singing a passionate offering to God. But we do not merely eavesdrop. The deepest part of Nusrat's magic lies in the fact that he is able to bring our hearts to resonate with the music, so deeply, that we ourselves become full partners in that offering. He sings to God, and by listening, we also sing to God. |
