Legendary: Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and "Mustt Mustt"

As an American, I was once brainwashed by the American entertainment scene. I paid no attention to what was happening around the world. I watched American movies and listened to American music, or at least music that fell in line with American styles. Which was unfortunate because there is so much going on outside of the United States! Arts are alive and well in the rest of the world, and I would argue that both inside the United States and out, the most creativity comes from those artists, writers and musicians outside of the mainstream. The musicians that I loved while growing up certainly realized this even if we Americans didn't. American music was profoundly influenced by The Beatles, who were foreign, and we accepted this. And even The Beatles gained a whole new perspective on music after being introduced to something outside of Western music; Indian spirituality, music and instrumentation. Bob Marley made reggae popular, and before that, American music was transformed by Brazilian music forms like bossa nova and samba. In fact, the history of American music is all about the importation of styles from overseas. However, convincing Americans to not take their music watered down through the entertainment industry but to go straight to the source is frustrating. For all the amazing music I've heard since Megan and I started doing the global music show, most of my friends will not even give it a listen. And I'm not talking about crap, but phenomenal musicians and music. Yet people are comfortable inside what they know, I suppose, and are unwilling to tread into the unknown, even if it might be good.

It is in this reflective mood that today's random song finds me, and particularly the artist Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Khan was a Pakistani singer of Qawwali, the devotional music of Sufism. He had an amazing range of vocal abilities, and is considered by many to be one of the greatest voices ever recorded. He is credited with being one of the early progenitors of world music, and was the first to bring Qawwali music to international audiences. A number of Western musicians cite him as a major influence: for example, Jeff Buckley called Khan his "Elvis". Peter Gabriel also lists him as a major influence, and Paul Williams included a concert performance by Khan on his list of the 40 greatest artistic achievements of the 20th century. The Derek Trucks Band covers Khan's songs on two of their albums. Khan also contributed collaborated with Peter Gabriel on the soundtrack of The Last Temptation of Christ and with Eddie Vedder on the soundtrack of Dead Man Walking. He received many awards and recognitions for his work before his untimely death of cardiac arrest at age 48 in 1997 in Britain while traveling to Los Angeles for a kidney transplant. What a shame, and what a loss for the world. Mustt Mustt can be found on his 1990 collaboration with Canadian musician Michael Brook entitled Mustt Mustt which was re-released in 2012 by Real World Records.