Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Pakistan 2 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Sufism is the mystical branch of Islam. The Sufi strives for a direct connection with God. The rapture of music and dance is frequently used to create a transcendental experience in which the ego falls away, allowing direct experience of the divine. There is a saying 'If a man claims to be a Sufi, he is not, and any true Sufi will never claim to be one'. To call a music 'Sufi' is to thereby bring into question it's authenticity. If we claim this is Sufi music, it therefore must not be. What we can say, though, is that Shafqat Ali Khan's music is thoroughly rooted in the Sufi tradition. Many of the songs are ghazals, a poetic musical form in which the singer, taking the woman's perspective, longs for the return of her lover. This longing, expressed in a romantic form, is understood to be a metaphor for the soul's longing to be connected with the divine. The spiritual expression of Sufi music is robust and intensely emotional. This is no quiet background music for meditation, but deeply passionate music that wrestles with strong emotions, from melancholy and despair to rapturous ecstasy. By directly going into the emotion, in a way somewhat akin to how an American blues or gospel singer might, we find transcendence. The music takes us on a journey, and we emerge somehow changed.

This double-album presents Amjad Ali Khan's compositions for Sarod and Violin as a collection comprising the works previously premiered in three separate albums. The recordings included in this collection represent the culmination of a collaboration that came about through a serendipitous meeting of the artists in 2014 - Amjad Ali Khan, the Titan of the sarod, straddling two centuries, universally venerated as one of the greatest living Indian musicians in any genre; his sons, disciples and widely acclaimed sarod virtuosi in their own right, Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash; and the distinguished American violinist Elmira Darvarova, herself a historical figure as the first ever (and so far only) woman-concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York. The first fruit of these artists' unique joining of forces was their album, SOUL STRINGS, a bridge across which their respective traditions, coming from Indian Classical and Western Art Music genres, were generously shared, each with it's expressive and technical integrity intact, rather than squeezed into that oft-used and abused notion of Inchfusion.Inch What that first album suggested subtly, about this daring, supercharged, yet profoundly respectful and even affectionate meeting of musical minds, was later brilliantly confirmed by their second album AMALGAM, which included the inimitable sound of the universally beloved and venerated elder statesman of Indian Classical Music today - Amjad Ali Khan. Drawing on the North and South Indian classical music idioms, AMALGAM not only featured new works but also explored new aesthetic and rhetorical terrain both in terms of the intimate level of phrase and note, as well as at the larger architectonic and structural aspects of the music. The artists offered their third album PEACE WORSHIPERS as a final volume of their trilogy, again with new compositions for

Music of Kabul with Indian influence and music of Herat by two masters displaying a wonderful cohesiveness a perfect combination of the deep sound of Ustad Rahim Khushnawaz's rubâb (with it's characteristic Inchskin soundInch, with deep resonance from the sympathetic strings) and the brilliance of Gada Mohammad's dutâr, an octave higher. The two lutenists on this album represent two contrasting facets of Afghan musicianship Rahim Khushnawaz is the InchsuperiorInch musician in terms of technical expertise, range of expression, breadth of knowledge, and ability to improvise. Gada Mohammad's playing is more intuitive, following and accompanying the rubâb; yet, he can hold his own as a soloist, as these recordings show. Album Tracks 1. Leili Kodâm Ast Be Nok-E BÂM Ast 2. Chahârbeiti Siâhmu Wa Jalali 3. Asadullah JÂN 4. Jâm-E Nârenji 5. Naghmeh-E Kashâl (Râga Beiru) 6. Naghmeh-E Kashâl (Râga Yemen) 7. Naghmeh-E Kashâl (Râga Bhimpalasi) 8. Naghmeh-E Kashâl (Râga Pilu) 9. Tarz (Râga ÂSÂ)