Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Tribute
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Tribute
THE HEART AND SOUL OF WORLD MUSIC:
REMEMBERING NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN (1948-1997)
Adapted from a letter originally dated August 24, 1997
© 2000 by Karen I. Olsen
Comments by Karen I. Olsen on this site.
As you might have read in the news or seen on CNN at the time, mid-August of 1997 was the occasion of a very rough week for me. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, my favorite musician in any genre, and the person with whom I most wanted to study music, took ill in London on Monday, August 11, 1997, while on the way to Los Angeles from Lahore, Pakistan to receive a kidney transplant. While still at Cromwell Hospital in London, Nusrat died of sudden cardiac arrest on Saturday, August 16, just before noon, Greenwich Mean Time. I first read the news in both the Seattle Times and the New York Times the following morning; by that time, his body had already been returned to Pakistan, where thousands of distraught people attended his funeral and burial procession. (more…)
Comments(7)