Five music videos of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's collaboration with international artistes
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s obituary in the New York Times in 1997 says of the singer, “...In the 1980s and 90s, he also became what Ravi Shankar had been in the 60s...". He can be credited with introducing the qawwali to the West.
Nusrat's father didn't want him to be a singer but the young Fateh Ali Khan's interest and talent eventually made his father relent.
In the 1990s he even produced a spate of pop qawwali with Afreen Afreen, Piya Re, Tere Bin Nahin Lagda Dil and other songs, accompanied by music videos to suit the changing tastes of subcontinental audiences.
Nusrat, who started singing in the 1960s, was introduced to the Occident in a big way in 1985 at the World of Music, Arts and Dance Festival organised by English musician Peter Gabriel. He then performed in England and France in 1988, adding to his fan-base in the West.
Nusrat performed with Gabriel at the 1996 VH1 music awards, just a year before he died of a cardiac arrest.
The most famous of Nusrat's collaboration with musicians from the West was probably when he got together with Pearl Jam's lead singer Eddie Vedder to produce the haunting soundtrack for the Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn starrer Dead Man Walking.
Jeff Buckley, famously known for his cover of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, referred to Nusrat as his Elvis. He made an attempt to cover the famous qawwali Yeh Jo Halka Halka Suroor Hai. It is not the greatest version of the song but he was certainly inspired.
Massive Attack an English "trip hop" English band made a club music mix to Nusrat's rendition of Dam Mast Qalandar.
