POP MUSIC REVIEW : Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Delivers a Set for Insiders

An announcement at UCLA’s Royce Hall Sunday asking the audience not to come onstage wasn’t aimed at potential stage-divers, but at spectators who might indulge in the Indian/Pakistani practice of giving money to esteemed artists during a performance. Pakistani qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s first formal concert here didn’t disappoint the capacity audience, but ultimately qawwali may remain an insider’s music.

Qawwali (the name means utterance in the Urdu language) is the devotional music of Muslim Sufi mystics, but it lacks the ecstatic quality of American gospel. The pieces followed a basic pattern--two harmonium (pump organ) players laid a swirling melodic bed for multiple vocal lines while galloping tablas provided a stirring rhythmic pulse.

Khan usually stated a vocal line and then handed it off to one of three other singers for a round-robin-style series of embellishments and response.

Khan’s forte was his intricate phrasing and astonishingly swift rhythmic variations. The most revealing moment arrived in the last piece before intermission, when Khan delivered quiet, unadorned vocal lines that brought appreciative murmurs of acknowledgment from the substantial Indian/Pakistani contingent in the audience.

Clearly, Western listeners can admire the dazzling vocal techniques, but the true meaning of qawwali remains with those who understand the lyrics.