RAHAT NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN

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Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (born 1974 in Faisalabad, Pakistan, the son 
of Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's brother and accompanist, and grandson of another legendary qawwali master, Fateh Ali Khan) is the scion of a family whose name has become synonymous with a South Asian musical tradition ten centuries old which has only in recent years captured the imagination of listeners in the West.   He was chosen at birth by his uncle Nusrat for tutoring in the traditions of qawwali music and was precociously singing for and with his uncle and father by the age of three.  His formal training with his uncle began at age six and from age fifteen, after years of intimate study, he was made an integral part of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's qawwali party which came to be known throughout the world.

The ten other members of the current party are: Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan 
(Rahat's father), Taskeen Ali, Iqbal, Farhat Ali, Muhammad Akram, Muhammad Shafique, Riaz Ahmad Fridi, Dildar Hussain, Dilbar Hussain and Nafees Ahhmed. 

Qawwali music (the word derives from the Arabic word "qual", which means "belief" or "credo") is the explosive devotional music of the Sufis -- Muslim mystics -- of Pakistan and the Indian Subcontinent.  It originated in the 10th century as a blend of Persian and Central Asian poetic, philosophical and religious elements with North Indian musical expression.  Originally, and still today, the most common venues for the performance of qawwali music are the traditional Thursday evening sessions of Sufi congregants gathered at the shrines of any of the hundreds of  Muslim saints of the region. Groups of qawwals (the lead performers of this music) play through the night, the best performing near dawn.  The qawwals are heard by "the friends" (the rank-and-file members of the Sufi orders themselves) the pirs (holy men who serve as spiritual guides) and by laymen alike.  Significantly, qawwali music 
evolved long ago into a popular form of musical expression with a wide 
following among persons of all the South Asian religious faiths.   Qawwali music is inseparably linked to the name of Amir Khusrau (1254-1325), court musician, composer, poet and mystic, who experimented with diverse musical forms, combining the Indian and the Persian, and various Sufi traditional forms, arriving at a penetrating synthesis of Islamic devotional texts with North Indian classical music.  Toward the middle of the sixteenth century, an idiosyncratic style of qawwali  music arose in the Punjab which came to be known as the Punjabi ang, weaving the profound texts of Punjabi Sufism with folk material including more energetic percussive themes and newfound 
haunting melodies.

In modern times, Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan emerged as an imposing new 
figure in qawwali music, destined to carry the music to new audiences and, for the first time, beyond the borders of the lands of its origins.

A singer of mythic proportions with an otherworldly, trance-inducing voice, Nusrat was discovered and promoted by British pop star Peter Gabriel through Gabriel's Real World record label and WOMAD international festival production company beginning in 1988, creating a wave of interest among listeners in the West.  His untimely death in August 1997 was widely mourned outside of South Asia and his recordings continue to exhibit a measure of mass appeal throughout the entire world. Nusrat referred to Rahat as "my eyes upon the world". Shortly after Nusrat's passing, the mantle of leadership of his group was passed to Rahat in ceremonies in Lahore, Pakistan, and, in deference to his master, Rahat added Nusrat's first name to his own (the traditional tribute in the qawwal fraternity).  After a nearly two-year hiatus following Nusrat's death, Rahat and the party will be resuming performances outside of Pakistan beginning with the present tour, with a debut album for Sony Music scheduled for release in the year 2000.

Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, whose distinctive, high-pitched voice can 
be thrilling in its mystic leaps of passion and, at other times, soothing in the sustained warmth of  its classical progressions, effortlessly embraces the elevating aesthetic of qawwali tradition.   He is, by any measure, an exciting standard-bearer for this music into its eleventh century. The upcoming European and American concert performances are going to be important events.