God’s voice

Posted on 12 January, 2013 by proprietrix

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan makes the purist pop of all

by Jon Garelick

Afro-pop enthusiasts boogie to Salif Keita, Kanda Bongo Man, Youssou N’Dour, and Angélique Kidjo. Proud Celts have Clannad, Altan, and the Chieftains. Brazilian pop fanatics worship Milton Nascimento. But in Alternative Nation, the world-music man of the moment is Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The one-sheet from his publicist is an alterna-rock wet dream. Peter Gabriel, Trent Reznor, and Eddie Vedder have all worked with him. Joan Osborne wants to study with him. Jeff Buckley has interviewed him for Interview, and techno brats are vying for the remix rights. And the Nusrat bonanza continues, with several new albums and an appearance this Sunday, April 28, on VH-1 (9 p.m.) as part of the VH-1 Honorstribute to the Witness human-rights organization. Continue reading →

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Says His Message of Peace Is for Everyone

Posted on 11 January, 2013 by proprietrix

JIM WASHBURN | THE TIMES

Nusrat & His of Love & Peace

Unlike many popular singers who have wildly animated styles, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan performs seated, as implacably planted on the stage floor as a bean-bag chair. But though he may be rooted to the spot physically, the Pakistani singer’s voice launches into incredible, propulsive flights of melismatic abandon as he strains to embody the content of his songs, and his hands and arms often gesticulate and fly with the emotion of his singing.

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A Night With Nusrat: An Odd Place for an Epiphany

Posted on 8 January, 2013 by proprietrix

It was a late Friday afternoon in 1990 when I got a call at the Los Angeles Times office inviting me to see a show by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan that evening. The qawwali master was performing in, of all places, a conference room at the LAX Airport Hilton, headlining a benefit to help build a cancer hospital in Lahore, Pakistan, hosted by that nation’s cricket hero Imran Khan.