Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

[I6MTW]

17 minutes ago, dial_100 said:

Indeed. Both Bhimsen Joshi and Balmurlikrishna were great vocalists. Only thing I didnt like about BJ that he was alcoholic.

 

Here is my favorite of him. 

 

 

Singing is pure art and it is just not about being technical about singing but also connecting with your audience. When someone is intoxicated then that connection is lost. Nonetheless, he was amazing singer and nobody can take it away from him.

 

But even BMK used to drink, and there were rumours he'd have a peg or two before performing. As for connecting with audience, most of the great singers/musicians were very good at connecting with the audience. NFAK was very good at doing that, sending audiences into a trance. He did so all over the world, even foreigners would sit and listen to his music while being intoxicated at concerts.

Edited November 16, 2018 by I6MTW

[I6MTW]

4 hours ago, rkt.india said:

 

 

 

carnatic

Nice! I have listened to Dr.BMK before. One of the highest rated Carnatic singers. I'd rate him above Yesudas(who gets more praise ).

[rkt.india]

8 hours ago, dial_100 said:

Indeed. Both Bhimsen Joshi and Balmurlikrishna were great vocalists. Only thing I didnt like about BJ that he was alcoholic.

 

Here is my favorite of him. 

 

 

Singing is pure art and it is just not about being technical about singing but also connecting with your audience. When someone is intoxicated then that connection is lost. Nonetheless, he was amazing singer and nobody can take it away from him.

 

i think it could be opposite.  Drink does erase our inhibitions and for some that might help them connect with audience better and express themselves better.

[Global.Baba]

9 hours ago, I6MTW said:

Nice! I have listened to Dr.BMK before. One of the highest rated Carnatic singers. I'd rate him above Yesudas(who gets more praise ).

Jesudas is a great singer but he is famous for his film songs and devotional songs. He is kind of a combo of say SP Balasubramaniam ( when it comes to being one of the  G.O.A.T of film songs in the south) + Anoop Jalota. He is not in the same category as Dr.BMk. I am choosing the words carefully “category” not “league”.Just like you can’t compare MS Subbalakshmi to Lata Mangeshkar.

 

 

[Global.Baba]

On topic, I find listening to a uncut Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan qawaalli or whatever you call his genre of music unbearable.

 

Having said that I love his songs when they are kind of tailored for soundtrack music. By that I don’t mean the atrocious copies like Tu cheez badi hai mast mast or mera piya ghar aaya oh ramji.

 

I mean more like  dulhe ka sehra from some Hindi movie or Tere Bin from Bend it like Beckham soundtrack etc etc. I also love the   Bally Sagoo remixes  (guilty pleasure).

 

I like Dr.Bala Murali but again same thing here as above love the Thyagaraja,Annamayya,Ramadasa Kirtans edited for either soundtrack purpose or commercial use.

 

I prefer  Hindustani and Carnatic instrumental be it Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Ravi Shankar,Mandolin Srinivas and even more contemporary musicians like Anoushka Shankar.

 

I went to a Zakir Hussain concert in US. I was totally blown away. The guy is an out and out showman. It is not just his music which is mind blowing  anyways but the way he builds up to the piece he is performing , it is almost like watching a magician in action

 

As far as NFAK goes, as talented as he was once again it is Bollywood and their Pakistani love rubbing in our faces about him being the greatest thing since slice bread. He is great absolutely no one can take that way from him  but singing his praises like he is the only one out there is a little over the top. Bollywood has always promoted Qawwali and Sufi music to cater to the Middle East and Pakistan Anyways. There are dime a dozen musicians as talented if not more than him in every region of India.

 

 

Edited November 17, 2018 by Global.Baba

[I6MTW]

56 minutes ago, Global.Baba said:

Jesudas is a great singer but he is famous for his film songs and devotional songs. He is kind of a combo of say SP Balasubramaniam ( when it comes to being one of the  G.O.A.T of film songs in the south) + Anoop Jalota. He is not in the same category as Dr.BMk. I am choosing the words carefully “category” not “league”.Just like you can’t compare MS Subbalakshmi to Lata Mangeshkar.

 

 

The reason why I compared both is because yesudas is also a Carnatic singer but he is not nearly as talented as BMK. 

[Global.Baba]

True story

 

in the mid 90s my family bought a BPL CD sound system. Pretty big deal for us in those days.

 

So after a lot of  nagging ,me and my sister convinced our dad to buy us some CD’s which cost an arm and leg in those times. We were sanctioned 4 cds with a caveat that this is all we will get for the foreseeable future.

 

First CD was already decided as a CD of   Annamayya kirtanas by classical musician Shobha Raj.

 

We had 3 more options

 

2nd one was Asha Bhosle/ RD Burman  hits which was unanimously accepted without any issues or too much persuasion.

 

3rd one was Michael Jackson hits  which didn’t take a lot of persuasion but was a half hearted “alright” almost as an  appeasement  for one of the CD’s being  Annamayya kirtans.

 

Now the 4th CD we picked was best of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

 

Now this took a lot of persuasion. Me and my sister were under the impression that this was a collaboration with Bally Sagoo and would have all the beats and will sound awesome on this amazing CD player. We literally had to explain how great this fusion was and how amazing this would sound and how great this singer was. Finally my dad gave in.

 

After a few days when we played this CD, there were some guests who were older and very conservative visiting us, so trying to show off I played the NFAK CD, First thing that came out was “Allah hoo” “Allah hoo” followed by a loud raaga that sounded like the Azaan. I still remember the look I got. Only if looks would kill. Without saying a single word I heard a loud scream “WTF is this?” My dad gave me a look of if you play this crap again “I will throw you out of the house”

 

Obviously as we grew older me and my sister kind of appreciate NFAK a lot more but for a long time his CD became an inside joke and a running gag in our family :)

 

Good Times!!!

 

 

 

 

Edited November 17, 2018 by Global.Baba

[I6MTW]

40 minutes ago, Global.Baba said:

On topic, I find listening to a uncut Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan qawaalli or whatever you call his genre of music unbearable.

 

Having said that I love his songs when they are kind of tailored for soundtrack music. By that I don’t mean the atrocious copies like Tu cheez badi hai mast mast or mera piya ghar aaya oh ramji.

 

I mean more like  dulhe ka sehra from some Hindi movie or Tere Bin from Bend it like Beckham soundtrack etc etc. I also love the   Bally Sagoo remixes  (guilty pleasure).

 

I like Dr.Bala Murali but again same thing here as above love the Thyagaraja,Annamayya,Ramadasa Kirtans edited for either soundtrack purpose or commercial use.

 

I prefer  Hindustani and Carnatic instrumental be it Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Ravi Shankar,Mandolin Srinivas and even more contemporary musicians like Anoushka Shankar.

 

I went to a Zakir Hussain concert in US. I was totally blown away. The guy is an out and out showman. It is not just his music which is mind blowing  anyways but the way he builds up to the piece he is performing , it is almost like watching a magician in action

 

As far as NFAK goes, as talented as he was once again it is Bollywood and their Pakistani love rubbing in our faces about him being the greatest thing since slice bread. He is great absolutely no one can take that way from him  but singing his praises like he is the only one out there is a little over the top. Bollywood has always promoted Qawwali and Sufi music to cater to the Middle East and Pakistan Anyways. There are dime a dozen musicians as talented if not more than him in every region of India.

 

 

Each to their own I guess, in order to fully judge a singer u have to listen to their  live uncut performances. Even I never had the patience to listen to performances that goes on for hours, be it Carnatic or Hindustani. But sometimes during those performances you'll find them engaging in high level alaps, sargams, vocal ranges etc. I listen only for that. Or else the edited versions on saavn, gaana etc are much easier to listen to. As for Bollywood popularising NFAK, I agree they have been doing that since the 80s and 90s when he was at his peak. He was the most copied artist. But, his compositions were very good, some of his qawalis(Allah Hoo, Yeh Jo halka halka suroor hai, sanu ek pal chain, mere Rashke Qamar and so many more) were very good, he good at composing, creating music, improvising on lyrics during live performances etc. So his praise and hype was well deserved. It's difficult to say who is the greatest singer of subcontinent or even  all time for that matter but NFAK is up there at the top as one of them. He certainly is the greatest of his genre.

[I6MTW]

2 minutes ago, Global.Baba said:

True story

 

in the mid 90s my family bought a CD sound system. Pretty big deal for us in those days.

 

So after a lot of  nagging ,me and my sister convinced our dad to buy us some CD’s which cost an arm and leg in those times. We were sanctioned 4 cds with a caveat that this will all we will get for the foreseeable future.

 

First CD was already decided as a CD of   Annamayya kirtanas by classical musician Shobha Raj.

 

We had 3 more options

 

2nd one was Asha Bhosle/ RD Birman hits which was unanimously accepted without any issues.

 

3rd one was Michael Jackson hits  which didn’t take a lot of persuasion but was a half hearted ok almost as an  appeasement  for one of the CD’s being  Annamayya kirtans.

 

Now the 4th CD we picked was best of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

 

Now this took a lot of persuasion. Me and my sister were under the impression that this was a collaboration with Bally Sagoo and would have all the beats and will sound awesome on this amazing CD player. We literally had to explain how great this fusion was and how amazing this would sound and how great this singer was. Finally my dad gave in.

 

After a few days when we played this CD, there were some guests who were older and very conservative visiting us, so trying to show off I played the NFAK CD, First thing that came out was “Allah hoo” “Allah hoo” followed by a loud raaga that sounded like the Azaan. I still remember the look I got. Only if looks would kill. Without saying a single word I heard a loud scream “WTF is this?” My dad gave me a look of if you play this crap again “I will throw you out of the house”

 

Obviously as we grew older me and my sister kind of appreciate NFAK a lot more but for a long time his CD became a inside joke and a running gag in our family :)

 

Good Times!!!

 

 

 

 

I have had similar experiences at my home. I would play NFAK music in the car or at my home and there would be criticism from eveywhere saying he is because, tf is this etc. I would say you wouldn't understand this music and FYI he has one of the highest vocal ranges and versatility in alaps etc etc. Once I played Allah Hoo and when those alaps started to come in, everyone said change this ****, it's horrible etc. So yeah even ive had similar experiences.

 

But Allah Hoo is actually a very good composition. It's nice to listen too. Very meaning full and the alaps are amazing.  Im not religious myself but certain religious songs do send you into a trance. 

[vayuu1]

Sorry if it offend anyone, but TBH I find nusrat Fatah Ali Khan overrated, awaz mishri ki Tarah honi chahiye, but I find his voice karkash with lots of shouting, sorry if it offends anyone ,yes he has some amazing songs to his credit but I prefer soothing voice, not screeching voice. 

[I6MTW]

7 hours ago, vayuu1 said:

Sorry if it offend anyone, but TBH I find nusrat Fatah Ali Khan overrated, awaz mishri ki Tarah honi chahiye, but I find his voice karkash with lots of shouting, sorry if it offends anyone ,yes he has some amazing songs to his credit but I prefer soothing voice, not screeching voice. 

Thats his voice quality. He has that deep rustic powerful voice with lots of texture! His vocal range and quality is amazing. The way he can casually hit high and low notes. If you want to know how technically sound he is, jus watch the reaction videos on Nusrat by professional vocal coaches(mostly foreign) on youtube. They give they're comments and inputs and they're quite positive. Another example of his uniqueness is so many artists have copied and done cover versions of his songs, but none have been able to match/recreate the magic done by him, best they were able to do is render justice to his songs. Plus his voice IS soothing, u just have to search for the best audio quality(those days sound quality was less during live performances, only recordings and soundtracks had decent quality), and listen to it on low volume, it can be very soothing. Eg songs. Sanu ek pal chain, yeh Jo halka halka suroor, tere bin nahi lagda etc

Edited November 18, 2018 by I6MTW