The Rough Guide to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan by
Posted date: as of 2012-10-09 - Details
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The Rough Guide to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan celebrates the singer who died tragically young, four years ago, and who single-handedly put the Pakistani qawwali style on the international map. Its mystical peace-and-love message may have made it a laudable export, but its freewheeling modes can be initially hard on the Western ear: what sold it was this man's extraordinary vocal virtuosity. He could holler with rasping roughness, and he could weave the most delicate melismas; he was adept at pacing his long solos--these 10-minute tracks are mere excerpts--and at building to a blazing climax. All these songs are ecstatically in praise of Allah and his saints, but they range from intimate religious rituals to orchestrated numbers complete with attendant female choruses almost in the Bollywood mode. The liner notes are by Jameela Siddiqi, author of the relevant Rough Guide chapter, and they're exemplary: she places this music in its historical and religious context with lucid authority. "Out of a thousand listeners," said Nusrat, "even if just one feels closer to his Creator, then my work is done." Listen attentively to this marvellous record, and you'll see what he meant.
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