[.ca] 1997 Swan Song His Final Per

From Amazon.com:
It's difficult to determine what the thinking was behind adding a drum kit, bass, synthesizer, and saxophone to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's ensemble for what became his final concert in May 1997. Perhaps it was naiveté, perhaps poor taste, but whatever the thinking was, the choice reduced the most revered religious singer of our time to the functional equivalent of a Western nightclub act dressed in powder-blue threads crooning at the Luxor in Las Vegas. The praise song "Allah Hoo," regularly sung to open Nusrat's concerts, holds back the qawwali party in a cutesy rhythm designed for folks to clap merrily along to rather than encourage the ensemble to blast off into heated ecstasy. It's hard to figure out who this concert is aimed at: Nusrat purists will run away screaming, and ambient fans of his work with Michael Brook and Peter Gabriel (which now seems tasteful beside this recording) will cringe. One wonders why this mystic Sufi who dedicated his life to praising God through traditional Islamic song allowed accompaniment from swishing high hat à la the Bee Gees' "Night Fever" disco heights--where the tabla is played as if a bongo or conga. What's even more amazing is how this concert ended up sounding so Western when recorded in Pakistan, home of Islam and Nusrat's most devout Muslim followers. Perhaps it'll be smooth jazzers who will adore the funky kooka-munga rhythms and "saxy" jazz lines played on electric piano and sax here. Apparently this was the inevitable commercial direction Nusrat was being led in before he died in August 1997, but it's still unfortunate that this label had to let us in on the dirty little secret. For an outstanding sample of Nusrat's work, check out Real World's Shahbaaz. --Karen Karleski

nusrat is!:
nusrat is nusrat, and he is one! from his origional native pakistani and sufi works to his work with the amazing peter gabriel, the moving micheal brook, and the grunge of eddie vedder...to his final swan song he is one! many blast this album for its ties to the western world.? please, i beg you folks to look beyond and see what nusrat was trying to do.......within this album you will see the roots of a world at peace......yet one struggling to be one! i have never held a musician as close to my soul as nusrat............. his music soothes the soul.....he approaches enlightenment......and just simply IS! i urge everyone to explore the world of nusrat and within that the the world of the sufis.... to me nusrat is..........all of nusrat........ it was his last evening on earth to share his music with the whole world, do not let the critiques of this evening sway you.... stand free... nusrat is and continues ......

The end of an era:
It was sad to hear what turned out to be nusrat's last concert ever. I think nusrat loved to experiment and that people in Pakistan liked the "modernised" qawwali as well. Definitely not his best work. You can tell the end was near. He had lost the power in his voice. His nephew, Rahat Ali Khan, had to take up the lead vocals on the last track because you can tell that the Man did not have the energy in him. Sad to see him go. What can I say? God is selfish...

Nusrat is the Best, but this album isn't very good:
Sadly this recording is the final performance of my beloved Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - a man whose voice and passion made me believe in the purity and power of life. The CD isn't as bad as the review indicates, but it certainly isn't the best of Nusrat available. Shabazz, Mustt Mustt, Night Song, any of these albums offer a better picture of his music. I do agree with the review in that these arraingements of his songs don't seem as "his" as others do. They are radical departures from his signature style and don't really allow the listener to experience his voice as is; including too much out-of-context accompaniment (a saxophone? please, never again...) and generally being overproduced, robbing the songs of one of their best qualities - always having the emotion of being spontaneous. I love Nusrat and his music, but I recommend skipping this recording in favor of almost any other.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: Swan Song:
This is a badly produced concert recording with very poor sound: unbalanced, with screeching feedback recurring all the way through; no microphone anywhere close to the master, so that the nuances of his voice are barely heard. Various Nusrat Ali Khan chestnuts are performed augmented with pop musicians playing western instruments in jazzy style with an incessant and unvarying beat. There is also electronic funny business on top of it all. The music is exciting and hysterically driven like a lot of pop music from middle eastern countries, very unlike the soul driven, elastic movement of the traditional Sufi Qawwali music that made Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan the great natural musician that he was. As intense as that music was, it was always spiritually founded, always balanced. Here, he sounds a little breathless, as though he is being rushed along by the speed of a train. His swan song? I can't help but wonder if the very commercial production of this concert didn't just push this Sufi master off the edge of the planet?

Avoid.:
I agree 100% with the Amazon review. The two _Live_in_France_ discs on the Ocora label are infinitely superior, and of course, much more difficult to locate.

• Hoo
• Ali da Malang
• Loey Loey
• Afreen Afreen
• Ik Pal Chein Na Awey
• Akhian Udeek Diyan
• Kinna Sohna
• Piya Ghar Aya
• Mustt Nazron
• Mustt Mustt