Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Shahen-Shah 1988

This 1988 recording helped to launch Peter Gabriel's Real World label. It also introduced Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan to the non-Pakistani world, presenting him as a kind of world music rock star. Nusratand his nine-man "party" perform their trademark qawwali here without alterations for the Western market. They sing in Urdu, using religious and romantic texts drawn from the poetry of Sufiism, the mystical sect of Islam. And yet, all the elements that would make Nusrat a world pop sensation are here, above all his enormous voice, husky and trenchant, powerful as a hurricane, severe and foreboding on the darkest tracks, but always bursting with the ecstatic joy of revelation, as on the classic, "Shamas-Ud-Doha, Badar-Ud-Doha." The relentless hand clapping and tabla drum accompaniment convey an aggressive tranciness that combines the contemplative serenity of Indian classical music with the headbanging frenzy of punk rock. Droning harmonium melodies introduce each of these six, ten-minute-plus tracks, and then wind through the escalating vocal fireworks. Singers repeat lines with building intensity, each repetition squeezing more emotional juice from the words.Nusrat's scat-like improvisations are always a high point, often leading to swelling unison chant melodies sung by the entire party. This release effectively rallied a host of samplers, re-mixers, and film scorers who would keep Nusrat busy for the remaining decade of his life. But in retrospect, nothing they created surpasses this, Nusrat's first session at Real World. "Shahen Shah" means the "brightest star," and though qawwali music now has other international stars, Nusrat still merits his title AMG.

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Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Qawwal & Party Shahbaaz 1991

Two years after the groundbreaking Shahen Shah, Nusrat returned to Peter Gabriel's Real World studio to record this set of four powerhouse pieces. Canadian guitarist and producer Michael Brook had collaborated with Nusrat on the 1990 crossover project Mustt Mustt, which created a sensation in Nusrat's native Pakistan. Brooke returns here to preside over a straight traditional recording of Nusrat's party. The notes make the point that Nusrat's immense popularity stemmed from his ability to merge separate traditions -- secular and classical, Muslim and Hindu. This set of pieces all come out of Sufi philosophic and religious tradition. But from start to finish, this session has rock & roll intensity about it. The tempos are feverishly fast, and the vocal arrangements quickly rise to vivid emotional crescendos. The improvisational passages are extended and adventurous. The lead track, "Beh Haadh Ramza Dhasdha," tells the story of a controversial Persian martyr of the tenth century, crucified for proclaiming, "I am the truth." This and the lengthy final piece revolve around a catchy refrain that anchors long, wandering forms. In contrast, the other two pieces unfold through successive permutations, ever striving into new spiritual territory. Nusrat can draw upon six centuries of musical tradition just within his own family. But here, on the qawwali star's most electrifying international release, it's clear even to the naïve listener that he's stretching the boundaries of that tradition, embracing his own present even as he honors his ancestors' past. AMG.
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