t so happened that the urs of Shah Abdul Lateef Bhitai and the barsi of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan fell within a weeks of each other this year. In their unique ways the two have been responsible for making music a popular and authentic medium of artistic expression. The urs celebrations were held at Bhit Shah last week.

Qawwali has been a major form of expression for the last seven hundred years at the Sufi shrines of the subcontinent. Some of the developments in the genre are attributed to Amir Khusro and Shah Lateef, who in a way codified the music in Sindh. No wonder his shrine has been a major centre of musical expression ranging from the kafi to the wai.

Nusrat was popular hugely within the country as well as in the rest of the subcontinent because of the variations he introduced and the range of the innovations he brought about in the formal qawwali and the Punjabi folk geet. His worldwide popularity and the extent of it are however not that simple to understand or explain. It so happens perhaps that a great artist arrives at the right time and conquers the world with his creativity. The true nature and range of the creativity is essentially inscrutable.

Nusrat was born in a traditional qawwal family. His ancestors, including his father, Fateh Ali, and his uncle, Mubarak, Ali were respected by musicians, particularly the exponents of the kheyal and kafi. Their brother, Salamat Ali, was a great harmonium player. However, his talent as an instrumentalist has not been as well appreciated owing to the bias towards vocal music in our tradition. Nusrat Fateh Ali got the lead role early because of the death of his father. Practicing heard from a young age when his promise was not that evident he gradually came to dominate the musical scene. His performances earned him a place in the front rank.

Having prevailed at the local musical scene, he stepped out of the traditional mould and was soon to become one of the most popular vocalists of the age. In a moment, if it can be called that, he started turning into the leading figure in the upswing of world music, leaving everyone behind. His vocals appealed to diverse audiences from Japan to Europe and Latin America.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s family had belonged to Basti Sheikh in Jallandhar. His father and uncle, Fateh Ali Khan and Mubarak Ali Khan, had been well known qawwals of their age. Besides the traditional repertoire of Arabic and Persian kalaam, they incorporated the kalaam of the Punjabi Sufi poets in a Punjab ang that made it attractive to receptive audiences far more than the kalaam in dialects like Brij Bhaasha, Poorbi and Khari, more popular in the Delhi, Ajmeer and Luckhnow regions.

Nusrat was born round 1947 in Lyallpur (now Faisalabad). The family had settled in Mohalla Lasoori Shah after they migrated from Jallandhar. E received early training from his esteemed father and uncle. As a child he accompanied them to numerous performances. His father, Fateh Ali Khan, was well versed in raagdari. He strengthened the melodic element in his qawwali. Mubarak Ali. Meanwhile, was a laikaar. The combination worked well and made them the foremost qawwali group in the subcontinent.

Of all the forms, qawwali has been subject to most experimentation. The rise of Nusrat Fateh Ali as a representative of the emerging trend of world music placed it in the eye of a controversial storm. To many a traditionalist, this was both distasteful and irreverent.

The mixing of musical traditions on a grassroots level started nearly fifty years ago. Initially, it was an effort by some daring musicians in various countries other than what is popularly designated as the developed West. Some Indian musicians, especially of the classical variety, made early inroads became popular in the West. So did some African musicians, particularly in France, The big-time intermixing of music probably started with the film music. This took the fusion beyond mere experimentation.

Other than television, radio and the recordings in cassettes, it was then the globalisation of media.

For at least three days last week, Bhit Shah resonated with the wai and kafi renditions. On every Thursday, in any case, there is a congregation of musicians, the so-called Shah Jo Raag Fakirs, traditional practitioners chanting ragas on the damboori. People from all walks of life congregate and partake of the cultural offerings associated with the Shah and go back spiritually charged.

There is a great need to explore the various forms of music that are chanted or sung at the Sufi shrines in various regions of the country in various languages and tonal variations.

The author is a culture critic based in Lahore