Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Party - Devotional and Love Songs

Recorded in the wake of the late Khan's triumphant performance at the 1985 WOMAD festival, this 10-track collection features the lighter, folkier side of the Pakistani classical music singer's repertoire. Accompanied by his nine-member "party" on acoustic guitar, mandolin, and a full complement of tabla and harmonium, Khan unleashes typically stunning vocal phrases marked by blinding speed, cutting tone, and unearthly ornamentation. The infectious "Yaad-E-Nabi Gulshan Mehka," with lyrics in praise of Muhammed, finds the qawwali singer at his most effervescent, while the ghazal (love song) "Mast Nazroon Se Allah Bachhae" features an insistent hand-clapped rhythm and the full Party chorus singing together in unison. --James Rotondi Amazon.com

Embodiment of ecstasy

One day while driving with some friends, one friend was surfing through the radio stations when I heard this most amazing voice. My heart leapt in my throat as I screamed at my friend who had moved on through the stations to go back, but it was too late. Who was this person??? I literally went crazy for days after trying to find out who this singer was. Finally, some music store clerk got who I was talking about and I bought the only CD available, Night Song. I listened to this CD every day and couldn't get enough. Every song on this CD had me.

To me, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan doesn't sing, he channels sound like a hollow bamboo in which that incredible music just flows through him from existence. Truly his voice is the voice of the divine. Sometimes it makes me cry as it touches something very deep in me.

While poets Jalaluddin Rumi and Kabir are the written voice of Sufism, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is the song of it. I've been doing Sufi whirling on and off for years and find that the essence of Sufism is deeply represented in Nusrat's music. I had not known of Qawwali music before hearing Nusrat, but I am familiar with Kirtan, which is a bit similar, and which I really like. So, of course I would fall in love with Qawwali music as both are devotional and follow centuries of spiritually driven musical tradition.

While I really love Night Song, my most favorite of Nusrat's is Devotional and Love Songs. This is mainly because when I hear him sing, I get so high that I need to move my body and express my bliss through dance or whirling. I love this CD because it's a concentration of his more traditional frenzied, hypnotic chanting type of song as opposed to the more western sound infused hybrids Night Song and Mustt Mustt. I totally loose myself in Nusrat's voice and the music's rhythmic beat and sometimes I don't even know how long I've been dancing or whirling. Shahen- Shah is similar to this one as well, but this CD just kind of hits me in a different way. And I absolutely love Allah Hoo, which is on this CD.

Even if you are not spiritually inclined, this music is precious just for the respect and reverence to life and love it conveys, even if you don't understand the words. October 4, 2007

King of the Qawali Sufi Music!

I couldn't say more. This is his best album ever. March 23, 2007

GREAT MUSIC

THE SONGS THAT ARE SHORTER IN LENGTH ARE WHAT I ENJOY BETTER.THE SELECTIONS ON THIS CD ARE SOME OF HIS GREATEST HITS THAT ANYONE WHO IS A LOVER OF NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN WILL ENJOY TREMENDOUSLY. October 7, 2005

Exhilirating

Nusrat Fateh Ali has a commanding voice and booming sonic presence. the Music of Qawalli is often an acquired listening experience. While i cannot speak for the listeners who listen to this musical form without knowing the linguistic intricacy and beauty mentioned in Qawalli verses, i can speak for the ones that do know the language its mostly sung in.

Musically the soundscape is beautiful and full of range and pleasing to the ear, knowing the lyrics behind it however gives the listener a totally new , almost religious sense of experience to this music, which most people feel is a very trance like state often that Whirling dervishes go into.

However anyone can truly enjoy the bliss featured within Qawalli rhythms and melodies which often seem natural, resonating with the listener's mindsets. The Japanese have claimed to have said that God resides in the vocal chords of Nusrat. The range expressed herein might bring that statement to elevation. It is not for everyone though. Qawalli music often takes patience to grow into a listening experience

Once the rapture of the sounds have you, its hard to let go. July 14, 2003

over-produced

Listen to Haq Ali Ali on this, and listen to it on something like Nusrat Live at Prince Albert Hall, you understand that there's no need to have the chorus echoing and all the voices in perfect sync, in fact that takes away from the passion of it, when it's almost discordant, that it demands something from God. This cd doesn't seem live, it seems cut and pasted and touched too much, and the string instrument, whether its a guitar or mandolin or whatever, it isn't common in nusrat and sometimes its okay, but mostly I dont care for it. It lacks the fullness, the brutality of real ecstatic quvalli, its like elevator quvalli or kennyg quvalli.
I was very disappointed with this album when I first got it, but now I like it some. November 19, 2001

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