2. Nusrat Fateh Ali KhanShahen-Shah
What more can you say about the king of qawwali? I don’t think you can find enough superlatives for this guy. I once read that there’s only one real qawwali master produced every generation but since Nusrat died I still haven’t heard anybody who compares. And then you’ve got that band around him, just brilliant! I love the harmonium too! And all that call and response and long form vibe has been a massive influence on me. Proper trance out celebration music. People I have talked about Nusrat to with a Pakistani background reckon that the guy has something like the status of a saint in Pakistan. I’m not sure the UK even has anything comparable in the rock and pop world. We have big selling artists and also loads of innovative stuff but Nusrat seems to transcend it somehow. It is totally in the mainstream but also right “out there” and, in its rawest form, completely the opposite to the three minute verse and chorus format. Although I have been to some qawwali performances since Nusrat died, I never got to see the group at the time which is a bit of a regret for me. I love pretty much every release though and the recordings of the live performances are great as well but this is the go to record I think.
