A Legendry artist Ustad Nusrat A. Khan

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan 13 October 1948 – 16 August 1997), was a Pakistani musician, primarily a singer of Qawwali, the devotional music of the Sufis.He possessed an extraordinary range of vocal abilities and could perform at a high level of intensity for several hours. Extending the 600-year old Qawwali tradition of his family, Khan is widely credited with introducing Qawwali music to international audiences. He is popularly known as “Shahenshah-e-Qawwali”, meaning “The King of Kings of Qawwali” .Born in Faisalabad, Khan had his first public performance at the age of 16, at his father’s chelum. Early life and career. He was the fifth child and first son of Fateh Ali Khan, a musicologist, vocalist, instrumentalist, and qawwal. Khan. Initially, his father did not want Khan to follow the family’s vocation. He had his heart set on Nusrat choosing a much more respectable career path and becoming a doctor or engineer, because he felt Qawwali artists had low social status. However, Khan showed such an aptitude for and interest in Qawwali, that his father finally relented.He began by learning the tabla before moving on to vocals.In 1964 leaving his musical education under the supervision of his paternal uncles, Mubarak Ali Khan and Salamat Ali Khan. [citation needed] He is the uncle of singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. In 1971, after the death of his uncle Mubarak Ali Khan, Khan became the official leader of the family Qawwali party and the party became known as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Mujahid Mubarak Ali Khan & Party. Khan’s first public performance as the leader of the Qawwali party was at a studio recording broadcast as part of an annual music festival organised by Radio Pakistan, known as Jashne-Baharan. Khan sang mainly in Urdu and Punjabi and occasionally in Persian, Braj Bhasha and Hindi. His first major hit in Pakistan was the song Haq Ali Ali, which was performed in a traditional style and with traditional instrumentation. The song featured restrained use of Khan’s sargam improvisations.

Later career

In the summer of 1985, Khan performed at the World of Music, Arts and Dance (WOMAD) festival in London.He performed in Paris in 1985 and 1988. He first visited Japan in 1987, at the invitation of the Japan Foundation. He performed at the 5th Asian Traditional Performing Art Festival in Japan.He also performed at Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York in 1989, earning him admiration from the American audience. In the 1992–93 academic year, Khan was a Visiting Artist in the Ethnomusicology department at the University of Washington, Seattle, In 1988, Khan teamed with Peter Gabriel on the soundtrack to The Last Temptation of Christ, which led to Khan being signed to Gabriel’s Real World label. He would go on to release five albums of traditional Qawwali through Real World, along with the more experimental albums Mustt Mustt (1990), Night Song (1996), and the posthumous remix album Star Rise (1997). Khan’s experimental work for Real World, which featured his collaborations with the Canadian guitarist Michael Brook, spurred on several further collaborations with a number of other Western composers and rock musicians. One of the most noteworthy of these collaborations came in 1995, when Khan grouped with Pearl Jam’s lead singer Eddie Vedder on two songs for the soundtrack to Dead Man Walking. Khan also provided vocals for The Prayer Cycle, which was put together by Jonathan Elias, but died before the tracks could be completed. Alanis Morissette was brought in to sing with his unfinished vocals. In 2002, Gabriel included Khan’s vocals on the posthumously released track “Signal to Noise” on his album Up. Khan’s album Intoxicated Spirit was nominated for a Grammy award in 1997 for best traditional folk album. That same year, his album Night Song was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best World Music Album, but lost out to The Chieftains’ album Santiago. Khan contributed songs to, and performed in, several Pakistani films. Shortly before his death, he composed music for three Bollywood films. which includes the film Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya, The movie was released in 1999, It is notable that the two legendary singing sisters of Bollywood, Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshkar sang for the songs he composed in his brief stint in Bollywood. Khan contributed the song “Gurus of Peace” to the album Vande Mataram, composed by A. R. Rahman, and released to celebrate the 50th anniversary of India’s independence. As a posthumous tribute, Rahman later released an album titled Gurus of Peace, which featured “Allah Hoo” by Khan. Rahman’s. He died of a sudden cardiac arrest at Cromwell Hospital, London on 16 August 1997.