As I said earlier, for an untrained ear, Ustaad may sound a bit noisy..but once the initial barrier is broken, its sheer heaven...the magic of human voice with only harmonium and tabla (indian percussion instrument)...one has to listen to nusrat to understand what heights it can achieve with virtually no orchestra.
I experienced the same height of ecstacy once I started understanding and enjoying his music...I now have a huge collection of Nusrat CDs, MP3s, Videos...cant have enough of them.
Qawwals like Nusrat belive in heavy improvisation everytime they sit down to sing...u listen to his song in one concert and the same song will sound pretty different in another concert...only an accomplished classically trained musician can achive this.
One of the specialities of his singing is extensive use of SARGAM (notations like sa, re, ga, ma to indicate notes)..he uses them so effortlessly that one cant help getting amazed...the sheer velocity of his sargams, taans...just too much.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's music and singing
THE JOURNEY BEGINS UNEXPECTEDLY.....
I have been following Ustaad (lets use the word Ustaad for him instead of using the whole name) since my MBA days. I was hooked the day I heard him sing Afreen Afreen. Heard him more in his studio versions like piyaa re, piyaa re etc...My fondness kept growing..Till this time I didnt know what was coming.
It was one evening when I was supposed to go my uncle's home for dinner and on the way, while I was browsing cassettes (CDs were not the norm those days as they are now) and came across a concert recoring of Ustaad and decided to buy it. Went to my uncle's home and after dinner decided to check the casette. As soon as the song began, I was literally red in my face..what I had bought??? It sounded sheer cacophony then, with me expecting recording studio sound etc..Yes, Ustaad can be NOISE for an untrained ears in the beginning.
Came home..a few days passed...I saw this cassette lying on my table again one day and though of trying it again. With nobody around, I could do some ADVENTURE...and this time, I listened to the whole cassette...AND AGAIN...AND AGAIN...AND WAS I HOOKED!!!!!!
Such is the power of his music ad its magnetism that when I joined a hostel during my MBA days, I waas the only one listening to Ustaad in my room..with full blast volume to create that concert atmosphere; and when I left hostel a year later, we had a nusrat cassette in almost every room...
I have been following Ustaad (lets use the word Ustaad for him instead of using the whole name) since my MBA days. I was hooked the day I heard him sing Afreen Afreen. Heard him more in his studio versions like piyaa re, piyaa re etc...My fondness kept growing..Till this time I didnt know what was coming.
It was one evening when I was supposed to go my uncle's home for dinner and on the way, while I was browsing cassettes (CDs were not the norm those days as they are now) and came across a concert recoring of Ustaad and decided to buy it. Went to my uncle's home and after dinner decided to check the casette. As soon as the song began, I was literally red in my face..what I had bought??? It sounded sheer cacophony then, with me expecting recording studio sound etc..Yes, Ustaad can be NOISE for an untrained ears in the beginning.
Came home..a few days passed...I saw this cassette lying on my table again one day and though of trying it again. With nobody around, I could do some ADVENTURE...and this time, I listened to the whole cassette...AND AGAIN...AND AGAIN...AND WAS I HOOKED!!!!!!
Such is the power of his music ad its magnetism that when I joined a hostel during my MBA days, I waas the only one listening to Ustaad in my room..with full blast volume to create that concert atmosphere; and when I left hostel a year later, we had a nusrat cassette in almost every room...
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