Nusrat and Michael Brooke . . . The Night Song(s)

The tracks Lament or Intoxicated from the album Night song by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Michael Brooke speak volumes about the musical understanding of these two geniuses and not only that of their own traditional styles but of the other's as well. Electronic music could have sounded nothing but intrusive with Qawwalis had it not been for Michael and if not for Nusrat's original voice the overall impact of the tracks would have been anything but cliched. Maybe this is where the years of penance comes into play. Even in a slightly lighter and more popular track like Tere Bina Nahi Lagda Dil Mera which has high recall for all those who follow Nusrat, there is a freshness that Michael has lent with his innovative use of guitars and once again some fantastic electronic elements. The song truly evoles what its rechristened title suggests, Longing. Interestingly, this album's title has also been thoughtfully decided because it couldn't have been heard at any better time than the night. We have spent many evenings on my terrace listening to this album with friends who equally enjoy music.

On this album, Michael holds his ground by chosing to do what he's best at - infusing unique guitar sounds in the original melodies and embellishing it with select electronic sounds. Michael's brilliance with use of guitar sounds goes back to The Joshua Tree by U2 where Michael created a unique guitar sound for the group. He uses a technique of directly plugging the guitar into a preamp instead of a voiced guitar amplifier. He adds a variety of effects using processors and this makes his guitar sounds very unique when one hears tracks like those on this album with NFAK.  At the same time, Nusrat pours out his passion taking the listener in a few seconds to a meditative state. Even those who are not ardent listeners of any particular genre of music have been mesmerized by these tracks whenever i have played them. The high point of these tracks is their repeatability. I seldom come across creations that one can listen for years together and not get tired of the voice or the music. I have been listening to this album since 2005 and the sensitivities continue to grown on me. But its not one of those albums which doesn't get your attention at the first instance but needs to grow on you. This one catches the listener unawares because of its sound as well as the first class sound mixing.

There is no way that one can hear conflicting music styles in these kind of creations unlike the downright cheap gimmicks of wannabe artists from both sides of the world. I have personally witnessed the thievery and quite often massacre of traditional music by DJs who travel across continents to Mumbai just to record a few loops of the Shehnai or Sarangi, which then interject some second grade club mix to give the revellers a karmic feel in Goa and Bali shacks. On the other hand are greats like Michael who work with a much broader purpose and import the richness of Hindustani music into their own concepts. One great example of folk music finding a global audience thanks to such efforts is Dil ki Doya by Paban das Baul and Sam Mills. They feature on the album Real Sugar produced by Peter Gabriel's Real World label. Mills found this bard on the Indo-Bangaldesh border from where they proceeded to some jamming sessions with Mills on the piano and eventually found their way on this album. There couldn't be a more visual song than this one and when i say that I am putting it in the class of what Rimsky Korsakov or Edward Grieg were trying to do with music when they wrote the vivid works like Scheherazade or In the hall of the mountain king. Without ever having heard any words of Baul in my whole life, I nearly deciphered the entire song and validated this with my friend Probir Mukerjee's grandad. These sort of accompishments have opened a whole new set of possibilities for music from across the continent to come together and 'fuse' in the real sense. One more example that I cannot stop myself from quoting here is Shakti and particularly Lotus Feet from Remember Shakti Vol.2. Of course, I don't want to do injustice to Shakti by not dedicating an entire blog to it but to put it in a nutshell, Shakti is probably the most successful attempt so far at truly mixing sounds and musical cultures. Many have taken it from there and used similar combos though not quite as honestly.

These examples serve the single most important purpose of reminding us how unaffected collaborative music remains despite the political and territorial differences that are raging across the world.

Wooly origins

"Who were the Sufi music greats before Nusrat?" asked my friend Gundu, during one of our many gupshups on my terrace. Frankly, I had no name to quote and that led me to believe that I have been so lost in Nusrat and Abeeda's works that I have not gone much beyond that as far as Sufi music is concerned. Again, I wasn't sure if we should commit the mistake of labelling all that is sung by these masters as Sufi music because we have already done that in the case of Hindustani music by covering everything under it as Indian classical music. This may have happened due to the lack of a better term or as a result of traditional classification done by those concerned in the British administration. Western classical music unlike Indian classical music is an appropriate class since it indicates any piece of music that received patronage from church or nobility in Europe between the 17th and early part of the 20th century. On the other hand Hindustani music cannot be defined within a specific time frame and this is not only because its impossible to find the original manuscripts but more so because it does not have an end date. Hindustani music survives on the exponent's ability to improvise which is a complete departure from the exactly opposite practice in Western classical music where its the degree of precision in reproduction of composed works by an individual or an orchestra which supercedes any other facet of the music. If we were to now imagine the challenge of defining Sufi music in the same way as Hindustani music, it wouldn't be wrong.

Sufi, the word itself is derived from Safaa which means pure and Suf which refers to the woolen cloaks wore by clerics in those times. Sufi is a mystical tradition in Islam and its followers often use music as a means of expressing their ideology. It must have been through the Afghan and Mogul invasions that the sect would have come into contact with Indian musicians. This could have possibly led to the evolution of Sufi songs and Quawwalis as we hear them today. Paimona by Zeb and Haniya is a great example of how music in the Indo Persian region can be clearly analyzed in traditional Hindustani structure of Astai and Antara. The same commonality is found in Nusrat's renditions. One theory also suggests that Amir Khusrou founded the principles of Hindustani music and is hence also responsible for the Persian, Turkish and Afghan influences. The meditative quality of Hindustani music could also potentially be derived from its roots in medieval Indian traditions as well as Buddhist influence in the North Western region.

Hence, I may not be able to answer Gundu's question with a set of names before Nusrat but probably by unravelling the evolution of this music style. I intend to use this blog space to present some hypotheses and ideas which are open to debate and opinions.