Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan





Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was a world-renowned Pakistani musician. He was primarily a singer of Qawwalis, the devotional music of the Sufis (A mystic tradition within Islam). His specialty was that he had got six octave vocal ranges and he could perform at a higher level intensity of voice for several hours.

Gracefully extending the tradition of 600 years of Qawwalis for his family, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is widely considered the major force to introduce the Sufi style of singing to the global audience. As a result, he was popularly known as Shahanshah-e-Qawwalis meaning the King Of Qawwalis.

Early Life
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was born on 13th October, 1948 in the City of Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan. As a child he was fascinated by the charm of music as music was a tradition in his family and as a result started to play Tabla alongside his father. He then progressed to learn Rag Vidya and Bol Bandish. Later, he began to start singing under the classic framework of Khayal.

Nevertheless, his training stopped midway as his father passed away in 1964 and then his musical training was completed by his uncles. His first performance was at the traditional graveyard ceremony of his father known as Chehlum, which took place 40 days after the death of his father.

Career
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's first official public performance was at the studio recording breakfast as part of an annual music extravaganza organized by Radio Pakistan, Jashn-e-Baharan.

He used to sing in Urdu, Punjabi, Persian, Brajbhasha and Hindi. His first hit was the song 'Haq Ali Ali. Later he was signed by Oriental Star Agencies, UK for their cassette label, OSA. The company released much of his performances on cassettes, DVD, CD and videotape.

Later Career
His album Intoxicated Spirits was nominated at the Grammy awards 1997 for best folk traditional album. Khan also contributed to, and performed in, several Pakistani movies.

However, shortly before his death he recorded for two bollywood films, Aur Pyar Ho Gaya and Kachche Dhage. He also sang the title song of the film, Dhadkan.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan also contributed to A.R. Rahman's album Vande Matram with a song Gurus Of Peace. The album was released to celebrate 50 years of India's independence. Rahman who was a big fan of Khan could not do any more songs with him.

Khan married Naheed, his first cousin in 1979 and had a daughter called Nida. He died of a sudden cardiac arrest in London on August 16th, 1997 aged only 48.



TrueColorsofLife.com © 2013. All Rights Reserved

Powered by Blog - Widget
Face Upward - Widget