POP MUSIC REVIEW : Nusrat Gives a Spiritual Lift and Understanding of Islam

Daily headlines--the continuing Persian Gulf situation, the breakaway Soviet Republics--make finding ways to understand the nature of Islam more important.

With that in mind, Saturday’s first-ever appearance in the Western United States by Pakistan’s Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was a key event both for the hundreds of Indo-Pakistanis and the handful of world music fans at a fund-raiser held in a ballroom of the Airport Hilton.

The Khan family has produced leaders in the tradition of Qawwal, a form of Sufi Muslim devotional singing, for more than 600 years.

In the last decade, Nusrat has become perhaps the most famous Qawwali of all, selling millions of records throughout the Indian sub-continent, and lately has become a globally prized figure, largely through Peter Gabriel, whose Real World record label has released three of the Pakistani’s albums.

A large, cherubic man, Nusrat sat cross-legged on a small stage, accompanied by harmonium and tabla, while singers echoed his intricate lines in call-and-response.

As the music ebbed and flowed with subtle but intense dynamics through pieces averaging more than 20 minutes, audience-members were moved to displays of ecstasy, with men (and only men, it should be noted) dancing and coming forward to toss paper money at the singer.

As alien and exotic as that may seem, it’s the same sense of transformation and elevation you find in Southern Baptist gospel or John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” or Van Morrison’s spiritual meditations. As such, Nusrat’s music could serve not only as a lift for the faithful, but also as an important bridge to greater understanding of Islam.