Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan makes the purist pop of all

by Jon Garelick ![“NusratAfro-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 Honors tribute to the Witness human-rights organization.

Courtesy: NPR

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Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan helped spread Qawwali, a form of Sufi devotional music, around the world.

JIM WASHBURN | THE TIMES

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.

If God (whoever he is) could choose someone to sing on his behalf, I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that Nusrat would be it.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was a man of impressive, even daunting, stature. The emotional intensity and soaring power of his voice transcend all boundaries of language and religion and have popularized this beautiful and inspirational music beyond Muslim peoples to audiences worldwide.