Body and Soul
The art of the qawwali isn’t just to transport himself to ecstasy with his music, but also those around him, and listeners. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan did it better than most, and there’s no denying he was one of the great voices of the 20th century.
Since his death, recordings have come out of the woodwork, many of them made just before his death. Body and Soul is another of them, taped in his native Lahore, and carefully restored at Real World studios. What’s interesting about these tracks is while Khan himself is front and center, he acts more as director and inspiration than the one taking all the vocal solos — when he does improvise, it tends to be in short bursts. (more…)