Monday, July 28, 2008

Nusrat = Elvis


"It's Nusrat, and he's my Elvis. That's my guy. I listen to him every day... I know everything about him... I know his nickname as a child." - Jeff Buckley, 1993


Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was a Sufi singer from Pakistan. He is the most recent qawwali performer in the Ali Khan family, which "has an unbroken tradition of performing qawwali for the last 600 years." Yikes. According to Wikipedia, "Nusrat is responsible for the modern evolution of Qawwali," including its "popularization" in the Western world. He worked with artists like Eddie Vedder, Peter Gabriel, and Alanis Morissette. His music even appeared in the film, Blood Diamond. (Oh, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers wrote a tribute song about him after his death in 1997.)


Nusrat has a remarkable voice and is worth checking out:






BUY Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

4 comments:

Dave Sawicki said...

You sent me the jeff buckley cover years ago, and I never understood why the audience was laughing at parts. Did they think he wasn't serious? or was he not serious?

Unknown said...

Obviously, I need to start listening to Nusrat. It's very interesting to me that both The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jeff Buckley could have had the same muse...

Unknown said...

So, what's cooler --Nusrat or this?:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/science/29jetpack.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Chris said...

Jetpack.