Today in history: Pakistan lost legendary qawwal Nusrat Fateh Ali
Legendary Pakistani qawwal Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan passed away 23 years ago today (August 16).
He was born on October 13, 1948 in Faisalabad. His father Ustad Fateh Ali Khan, was a musicologist, vocalist, instrumentalist, and qawwal. Khan’s first public performance was at a studio recording broadcast as part of an annual music festival organized by Radio Pakistan, known as Jashn-e-Baharan.
He sang mainly in Urdu and Punjabi and occasionally in Persian, Brajbhasha and Hindi. He teamed up with Peter Gabriel for the soundtrack of The Last Temptation of Christ in 1985, with Canadian musician Michael Brook on the albums Mustt Mustt (1990) and Night Song (1996) and with Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder in 1995 on two songs for the soundtrack to Dead Man Walking.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Khan holds the world record for the largest recorded output by a Qawwali artist—a total of 125 albums as of 2001.
The music legend was celebrated in several countries for breaking barriers of language, nationality, and musical genres.
Watch this video to learn more about the King of Qawwali.
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