Amir Khusrow once said ‘ Music is the fire that burns heart and soul.’ In the 20th century Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was the carrier of that fire
Amir Khusrow was not just the inventor of Many forms of music including Qawwali, but also a true philosopher and one of the greatest poets ever. NFAK started his musical journey in 1975 with an Amir Khusro’s ghazal in Jashn-e-bahara festival pakistan. Many great Pakistani singers heard NFAK there and showed lot of appreciation and love, which was the biggest motivation point for him ever, he was also given 500 rupees by a singer which used to be a great deal of money in those days. NFAK’s performance at Amir Khusro’s 700th anniversary was nothing less than special, it was this day when he was titled “Khusrau–e–Sani” meaning Equivalent to Khusrow . He later went on to sing many of Khusro’s poems with great compositions making them a forever saga. Though NFAK is forever in-debt to Khusrow for his poems and invention of Qawwali music, Khusrow himself remains in-debt to NFAK for keeping his poems alive for ever. What follows are some great NFAK-Khusrow tracks
NFAK Performing At 700th Anniversary Of Amir Khusraow
Cutting right to chest, if you are a big fan of “Allah Hoo” , then you might be knowing that the most famous version of Allah Hoo was recorded in this concert, I am talking about the 15 minutes versions you might have heard on albums like “Imprint”, “The Emperor” , “Live At Washington University” and any other famous compilation album. This is also the concert that was mentioned in our fan-story in previous post.
Nusrat teaching students at University of Washington 1993
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, was the Celebrity Visiting Artist in the University of Washington Ethnomusicology Program in 1992-93. It was during the end of his visit that there was a sudden demand of a Concert performance, other ensemble members were back in Pakistan, NFAK initially thought of giving a solo performance with Tari Khan on Tabla, however the other member flew in just a few hours before the time. And then they gave us such a great show (after traveling for over 20 hours continuously), hats off to them.
Nusrat teaching students at University of Washington 1993
So the performance has all the great tracks “Allah Hoo”, “Man Kunto Maula” (Might be the beat version), “Mast Mast”, “Haq Ali Ali”, “Mera Piya Ghar aaya”…
this video posted below contains the main part of concert, the duo performance with Farrukh and another one with Tari khan will be posted soon..
