The great Pakistani qawwali singer, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, dubbed the "Shahenshah-e-Qawwali" (the King of the Kings of Qawwali) died in 1997 at the young age of 48. He was right at the peak of his powers.
Since his unprecedented performance at Peter Gabriel's world music festival Womad in 1985, he had been in the process of taking qawwali to the world -- performing on festival and pop music stages, composing soundtracks (such as Peter Gabriel's soundtrack for Scorcese's Last Temptation Of Christ) and collaborating with musicians from different cultures like the 1990 hit album, Mustt Mustt, a fusion album that blended qawwali with producer Michael Brook's funky basslines, choppy electric guitar and driving percussion.
Mustt Mustt remains a favourite among his fans and Canadian-based Indian ghazal singer Kiran Ahluwalia recently made a superb cover of the song, topping many global music charts.
Khan came from a famous 600-year-old lineage of master singers. Qawwali singers and musicians perform Sufi devotional music, often at shrines. The musical ecstasy created by the music and its trance-inducing power, as Khan explained to me in a 1990 interview, "creates a bridge between the secular and spiritual worlds". He told me that anyone was welcome to join him on his sonic journey.
Khan left behind a huge legacy of recorded music (the Guinness Book of Records had him down as the most prolific qawwali singer of all time). He released five traditional qawwali albums on Gabriel's Real World label, as well as experimental collaborations with Canadian producer/guitarist Michael Brook, including Mustt Mustt (1990) and Night Song (1996). In 1995, he worked with Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder on the soundtrack to the movie, Dead Men Walking.
On April 29, 1990, before he recorded Mustt Mustt, he went into Real World's Wiltshire studios with his Party and laid down four tracks. These recordings disappeared into Real World's tape archive, sitting on the shelves for more than 30 years. Someone discovered the lost tracks, and Brook had them remastered. The result is Chain Of Light (Real World), which will release on Sept 20.
The new album kicks off with a song I saw Khan perform live -- Ya Allah Ya Rahmen -- for which Khan's soaring vocals are accompanied by driving tabla and harmonium. He seems to work with the rhythms of the tabla, cranking up the vocalisations that are called sargam. The next track, Aaj Sik Mitran Di, appears to be a languid groove based on a gentle harmonium groove but this changes as the tempo rises and Khan begins his mesmerising sargam.
But my favourite of the four tracks (each one is around 10 minutes long and as the producer says, they could have played on for much longer) is the third song, Ya Gaus Ya Meeran, which has never been recorded and released. This song, sung in Khan's native Urdu (he sang in Urdu, Hindi, Persian and Punjabi) weaves Khan's vocal power around the changing tempo of the accompaniment, and as the music builds up and the tempo rises, Khan's majestic and powerful voice reaches a climax. It's a truly wonderful piece of music, one that sticks in the memory. The title of this essential album, Chain Of Light, comes from lyrics of the song: "Every breath of mine is related to his chain of light…"
The album closes with a song his father and uncle used to perform as part of the family repertoire, Khabram Raseed Imshab, which originally comes from the 'father of Qawwali' Amir Khusrau (1253-1325 AD), an Indo-Persian singer, musician, poet and scholar. Khan told me that he carried a book of lyrics with him at all times, and that Khusrau was the inspiration for using classic poetry as lyrics for qawwali songs.
This is a seminal album that fans of Sufi music will enjoy. For those curious about qawwali music, this album is an excellent place to start your musical journey.
"There is an amazing clarity to these performances", noted Michael Brook in the liner notes (the album comes with a beautifully illustrated 24-page booklet), "They are more harmonically adventurous than other songs that Nusrat was recording at the time and the whole group is firing on all cylinders."
John Clewley can be contacted at clewley.john@gmail.com.
