Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, also known by his initials NFAK, was a Pakistani singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and music director, primarily associated with qawwali, a form of Sufi devotional music from Pakistan and India. He ranks as one of the most influential South Asian singers of all time. Widely recognised as the "Shahanshah-e-Qawwali", he has been recognised as one of the 50 Great Voices by NPR and 200 Greatest Singers of All Time by Rolling Stone. The New York Times named Khan the greatest qawwali singer of his generation. Credited with introducing Qawwali music to international audiences, he was known for his vocal abilities and could perform at a high level of intensity for several hours.
Born in West Punjab, Khan had his first public performance at the age of 15 at his father's chelum. He became the head of the family qawwali party in 1971 and brought his unique style of sargam, khayal, and rhythm to his family's legacy. He was signed by Oriental Star Agencies, based in Birmingham, England, in the early 1980s. Khan went on to release movie scores and albums in Europe, India, Japan, Pakistan, and the United States. He engaged in collaborations and experiments with Western artists, becoming a well-known world music artist. He toured extensively, performing in over 40 countries. In addition to popularising qawwali music, he also had a profound impact on contemporary South Asian popular music, including Pakistani pop, Indian pop, and Bollywood music. He was also a master of Hindustani classical music.
Biography
Early life
Khan was born into a Punjabi Muslim family in Lyallpur in 1948. Khan's family belonged to Jalandhar; his ancestors had emigrated to Basti Sheikh Darvesh in Jalandhar at the end of the 12th century. His ancestors learned music and singing there and adopted it as a profession. He was the fifth child and first son of Fateh Ali Khan, a musicologist, vocalist, instrumentalist, and qawwal. Nusrat, who had four older sisters and a younger brother, Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan, grew up in central Faisalabad. The tradition of qawwali in the family has been passed down through successive generations for almost 600 years. Initially, his father did not want Khan to follow the family's vocation. He had his heart set on Nusrat choosing a much more respectable career path and becoming a doctor or engineer because he felt qawwali artists had low social status. However, Khan showed such an aptitude for and interest in qawwali, that his father finally relented.Early career
In his youth, Nusrat joined his father's qawwali party as a tabla player whilst continuing to learn the intricacies of singing. When Ustad Munawar Ali Khan, son of legendary classical vocalist Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, visited Pakistan from India to perform, Nusrat accompanied him on tabla. Munawar Ali Khan's enthusiastic praise for Nusrat's playing helped convince his father to stop pressuring him to become a doctor.In 1964, after the death of his father Fateh Ali Khan, Nusrat became the lead singer of the qawwali party alongside his uncle Mubarak Ali Khan. The party also included Mujahid Mubarak Ali Khan, the son of Mubarak and the cousin of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. After the death of Mubarak Ali Khan in 1971, the party became known as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Mujahid Mubarak Ali Khan & Party. As Nusrat's prominence grew, the party eventually became recognised as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Party. One of Khan's earliest public performances as leader of the family qawwali group was in March 1965, at a studio recording broadcast as part of an annual music festival organised by Radio Pakistan, known as Jashn-e-Baharan. The performance drew praise from legends such as Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Umid Ali Khan, Roshan Ara Begum, and Amanat Ali Khan. Khan sang mainly in Urdu and Punjabi and occasionally in Persian, Braj Bhasha, and Hindi. Among Khan's first major hits in Pakistan was the punjabi qawwali Ni Main Jana Jogi De Naal which he composed and first performed live in 1971, with a studio version subsequently recorded in 1973. The lyrics to Ni Main Jana Jogi De Naal were written by Bulleh Shah, a 17th century Sufi poet. Another of Khan's early hits in Pakistan was the qawaali 'Haq Ali Ali which featured restrained use of his sargam improvisations.
1980s
Throughout the 1980s, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan delivered a plethora of acclaimed qawwalis that highlighted his extraordinary vocal prowess and innovative approach to the traditional Sufi devotional genre, helping to introduce it to wider international audiences. Among these works was Mere Rashke Qamar, a ghazal-qawwali with lyrics by Urdu poet Fana Bulandshahri and composed by Nusrat. Another notable hit was the introspective ghazal-qawwali Sochta Hoon Ke Woh Kitne Masoom Thay, originally written and composed by Nusrat, with live performances dating back to the late 1970s but officially recorded by Oriental Star Agencies Ltd in 1985. Nusrat also composed the popular Mast Nazron Se Allah Bachaye, written by Purnam Allahabadi, Nusrat and his brother Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan. A further highlight was the Punjabi qawwali Nit Khair Manga, primarily penned by the poet Badar Ali Ansari with additional lyrics written by Nusrat. It was composed by Nusrat, although some have mistakenly attributed the composition to Badar. Additionally, the revered manqabat Aastan Hai Yeh Kis Shah-e-Zeshan Ka, in praise of Abdul Qadir Jilani, was written by Pir Naseeruddin Naseer Gilani and composed by Nusrat. These works underscore Nusrat's pivotal role in elevating qawwali to global audiences during this transformative era.In the summer of 1985, Khan performed at the World of Music, Arts and Dance festival in London. He performed in Paris in 1985 and 1988. He first visited Japan in 1987 at the invitation of the Japan Foundation. He performed at the 5th Asian Traditional Performing Art Festival in Japan. He also performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York, in 1989, earning him admiration from the American audience.
In 1988, Khan teamed up with Peter Gabriel on the soundtrack to The Last Temptation of Christ, which led to Khan being signed to Gabriel's Real World label.
In 1989, commissioned by Oriental Star Agencies Ltd in Birmingham, UK, Khan collaborated at Zella Recording Studios with composer Andrew Kristy and producer Johnny Haynes on a series of 'fusion' tracks that propelled Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Party into the Channel 4 Christmas Special of "Big World Café." While in the UK in 1989, Khan and his party performed Sikh devotional music at a Sikh Gurdwara in Slough, continuing a tradition of Muslims performing hymns at Sikh temples.
1990s
Following this, in 1990, the BBC devoted a programme of its series Network East to this collaboration, and Big World Café invited Khan, Andrew Kristy, and violinist Nigel Kennedy to perform Allah Hoo live on the show. A UK tour performing these new fusion tracks happened in 1990.In the 1992 -1993 academic year, Khan was a visiting artist in the Ethnomusicology department at the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States.
Khan released five albums of traditional qawwali through Real World, along with the more experimental albums Mustt Mustt, Night Song, and the posthumous remix album Star Rise. Khan's experimental work for Real World, which featured his collaborations with the Canadian guitarist Michael Brook, led to several further collaborations with other Western composers and rock musicians. One of these collaborations occurred in 1995, when Khan teamed up with Pearl Jam's lead singer Eddie Vedder on two songs for the soundtrack to Dead Man Walking. Khan also provided vocals for The Prayer Cycle, which was put together by Jonathan Elias, but died before the tracks could be completed. Alanis Morissette was brought in to sing alongside his unfinished vocals. In 2002, Gabriel included Khan's vocals on the track "Signal to Noise" on his album Up.
Khan was the main performer at Imran Khan's charity appeal concert at the InterContinental London Park Lane Hotel on December 3, 1992 to raise funds for Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, a cancer hospital built in Imran's mother's name which provides free services. The audience included Peter Gabriel, Elizabeth Hurley, Mick Jagger, and Amitabh Bachchan.
Khan's album Intoxicated Spirit was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album in 1997. That same year, his album Night Song was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best World Music Album.
Khan contributed the song "Gurus of Peace" to the 1997 album Vande Mataram, composed by A. R. Rahman, and released to celebrate the 50th anniversary of India's independence. As a posthumous tribute, Rahman later released an album titled Gurus of Peace which included "Allah Hoo" by Khan. Rahman's 2007 song "Tere Bina" for the film Guru was also composed as a tribute to Khan.
Khan contributed songs to, and performed in, several Pakistani films. Shortly before his death, he composed music for three Bollywood films, which include the film Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya, in which he also sang "Koi Jaane Koi Na Jaane" on-screen with the lead pair, and "Zindagi Jhoom Kar." He also composed music for Kartoos, where he sang for "Ishq Da Rutba" and "Bahaa Na Aansoo" alongside Udit Narayan. He died shortly before the movie's release. His final music composition for Bollywood was for the movie Kachche Dhaage, where he sang "Iss Shaan-E-Karam Ka Kya Kehna." The movie was released in 1999, two years after his death. Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshkar performed the songs he composed in his brief stint in Bollywood. He also sang "Saya Bhi Saath Jab Chhod Jaye" for Sunny Deol's movie Dillagi. The song was released in 1999, two years after Khan's death. He also sang "Dulhe Ka Sehra" from the Bollywood movie Dhadkan,which was released in 2000.