Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan نصرت فتح علی خان, (October 13, 1948 - August 16, 1997) was primarily a singer of qawwali, the devotional music of the Sufis, a mystical offshoot of Islam.

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Traditionally, qawwali has been a family business. Nusrat's family (originally from Afghanistan) has an unbroken tradition of performing qawwali for the last 600 years.

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He was born in Lyallpur, Punjab in 1948 to Fateh Ali Khan, a famous qawwal and musician. He had one brother, Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan. Initially, his father did not want Nusrat to follow him into the qawwali business. He had his heart set on Nusrat choosing a much more respectable career path, and becoming a doctor. However, Nusrat showed such an aptitude for, and interest in qawwali that his father finally relented and started to train him in the art of qawwali. This training was still incomplete when Fateh Ali Khan died in 1964, and the training was continued by Nusrat's uncle, Mubarak Ali Khan.

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Nusrat's first public performance as leader of the family qawwali group was in March 1965, at a studio recording broadcast as part of an annual music festival called Jashn-e-Baharan organized by Radio Pakistan. It took Nusrat several years more to perfect his craft, and emerge from the shadow of the groups that were regarded as the leading contemporary qawwals. But once he did, there was no looking back. He firmly established himself as the leading qawwal of the 20th century. His incredible voice and his complete mastery of the genre made him a superstar in the Islamic world, especially in Pakistan and India. He sang in Urdu and his native Punjabi, as well as Farsi. He was also one of the first South Asian singers to perform before large Western audiences.

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In Pakistan, his first major hit was the song "Haq Ali Ali" (). This was performed in a traditional style and with traditional instrumentation, and featured only sparse use of Nusrat's innovative sargam improvisations. Nevertheless the song became a major hit, as many listeners were attracted to the timbre and other qualities of Nusrat's voice.

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He reached out to Western audiences with a couple of fusion records produced by Canadian guitarist Michael Brook. In 1995, he collaborated with Eddie Vedder on the soundtrack to Dead Man Walking. His contribution to that and several other soundtracks and albums (including The Last Temptation of Christ), as well as his friendship with Peter Gabriel, helped to increase his popularity in Europe and the United States. Peter Gabriel's Real World label released five albums of Nusrat's traditional qawwali performances in the West. He also performed traditional qawwali live to Western audiences at several WOMAD world music festivals.

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Apparently, 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 pick similar sounding songs from his repertoire for his performances.

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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.

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Nusrat passed away in 1997 of cardiac arrest in London, England, at the age of 48. After his death, his brother Farrukh's son Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan took over the qawwali group.

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October 13: October 13 is the 286th day of the year (287th in leap years). There are 79 days remaining....

1948: 1948 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar)....

August 16: August 16 is the 228th day of the year (229th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 137 days remaining....

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