Radio de Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (Urdu: ???? ??? ??? ???, born October 13, 1948, died August 16, 1997), was a Pakistani musician, primarily a singer of Qawwali, the devotional music of the Sufis (a mystical tradition within Islam). He featured in Time magazine's 2006 list of 'Asian Heroes' . Traditionally, Qawwali has been a family business. Nusrat's family has an unbroken tradition of performing qawwali for the last 600 years. Among other honorary titles bestowed upon him, Nusrat was called Shahenshah-e-Qawwali, meaning The Emperor of Qawwali. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was born in Lyallpur (now Faisalabad), Pakistan on October 13, 1948 to Fateh Ali Khan , a distinguished and legendary musicologist, vocalist, instrumentalist, and Qawwal. Nusrat had four sisters and one brother, Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan. They grew up on Regal Road in central Faisalabad, in a small flat that was rented from a local successful business man, Naseeruddin Mian. Initially, Nusrat's father did not want him to enter the family business. He had his heart set on Nusrat choosing a more respectable career path by becoming a doctor or an engineer, because he felt Qawwals had a low social status. However, Nusrat showed such an aptitude for and interest in Qawwali that his father finally relented and started to train him in the art. At first, he was taught to play tabla, playing alongside his father. He then learnt Raag Vidya and bolbandish. Once he had mastered such arts, he was taught to sing within the classical framework of khayal in the Qawwal Bachchon Gharana and learnt dhrupad from the Dagar family. This training was left incomplete when Fateh Ali Khan died in 1964, while Nusrat was still in school. However, the training was continued by Nusrat's paternal uncles, Mubarak Ali Khan and Salamat Ali Khan.