Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (, ; born Pervez Fateh Ali Khan; 13 October 1948 – 16 August 1997), also known by his initials NFAK, was a Pakistani singer, songwriter, and music director. Khan was primarily a singer of qawwali, a form of Sufi devotional music. Often referred to as the "Shahenshah-e-Qawwali" (the King of Kings of Qawwali), he has been recognized 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 Lyallpur, 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 (present-day Faisalabad) in West Punjab 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. Khan's family, which included 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

A young Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan joined his father's qawwali party initially as a tabla player whilst continuing to learn the intricacies of singing. In 1964, after the death of his father Fateh Ali Khan, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan 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 Ali Khan 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 becoming recognized 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 organized by Radio Pakistan, known as ''Jashn-e-Baharan''. The 1965 ''Jashn-e-Baharan'' 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

In the summer of 1985, Khan performed at the World of Music, Arts and Dance (WOMAD) 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'' (1990), '' Night Song'' (1996), and the posthumous remix album '' Star Rise'' (1997). 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.

Death

Khan had been seriously ill for several months, according to a spokesperson at his U.S. label, American Recordings. After traveling to London for treatment for liver and kidney problems, he was rushed from the airport to the Cromwell Hospital, where he died of a sudden cardiac arrest on 16 August 1997, aged 48. His body was repatriated to Faisalabad, and his funeral was a public affair. His wife, Naheed Nusrat, moved to Canada after the death of her husband, where she died on 13 September 2013 in Mississauga, Ontario. Khan's musical legacy is now carried forward by his nephews, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Rizwan-Muazzam.

Awards and titles

Khan is widely considered to be the most important qawwal in history. In 1987, he received the President of Pakistan's Award for Pride of Performance for his contribution to Pakistani music. In 1995, he received the UNESCO Music Prize. In 1996 he was awarded Grand Prix des Amériques at Montreal World Film Festival

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases