David Dalle
Thursday August 14th, 2025 with David Dalle
Annual Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan memorial show: unusual recordings.

For my annual tribute show to this supreme artist who was so important to my understanding of music, we will hear some more unusual recordings, mostly of Nusrat repertoire we've never heard on my show. His repertoire and recorded output was so vast, even after doing this annual show since 1997, and playing Nusrat throughout the years, there is a lot we have never heard! We will particularly be focusing on Nusrat recordings which included unusual instruments. These are not various Western fusion recordings, or Nusrat remixes for Bollywood, but recordings made in Pakistan for the domestic market. When Nusrat toured Europe and the Americas, he would only ever have tabla and harmonium accompanying the singing, and virtually all the studio and live recordings made by European and American labels reflected this. This was the standard sound of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Party. However, in the domestic Pakistani recordings, there were often other instruments added. I think we will hear on the various pieces: sarangi, guitar, mandolin, maybe santoor, some reeded wind instrument (shehnai?), electric bass, and keyboard. Some of the repertoire we will hear: "Tumhein Dillagi Bhool Jaani Padhegi" by the 20th century Urdu poet Purnam Allahabadi. This was a very popular Qawwali sung by Nusrat, but I have never featured Nusrat singing it before. "Pilao Saqi Pilao"; this Qawwal references alcohol as a metaphor for divine intoxication, "Pour Saqi Pour", with Saqi being a server, traditionally of wine. "Haq Ali Maula" is one of Nusrat's most famous signature pieces, and one we've heard many versions before. However, this version features keyboards and bass quite prominently. It is a superb version though, with Nusrat twice interrupting the Qawwal to introduce a raga. There are very few details provided for these recordings, and I believe the recordings that feature keyboards and bass, the keyboard was added after. Still, you would have to have an extensive knowledge of Nusrat's discography to know today's program.