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Faiz Ali Faiz
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« Hommage à Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan »


« Hommage à Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan » Faiz is a man who thrives on challenges and risk-taking. His towering performance at the 2004 Sud à Arles festival was achieved despite being deprived, for health reasons, of his vocal counterpart at the last minute. Yet, traditional qawwali chanting relies on an interaction between the two lead singers that remind some of the call-and-response tradition in Corsican music. Faiz rose to the challenge and delivered a performance of pedigree and audacity that could not quite be rivalled by fellow-singers Miguel Poveda and Duquende, who shared the stage with the 42-year-old.
And, again, with this recorded homage to his great mentor, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Faiz skirts with tradition and trespasses onto territory normally reserved for Nusrat’s family. He boldly re-interprets some of the great master’s titles and successfully breathes new life into them. Faiz has followed the liberating path that his model set for a whole generation of qawwali singers.
Seven years after his death, Nusrat would be proud of the musical and spiritual development of the young man he designated as his successor. These devotional Sufi songs go back seven centuries, yet the vocal range and power of Faiz’s voice gives them new impulses that could once again seduce the rappers and DJs who adapted his rendition of “Dam mast qalandar” to the world dance floors.
Once again, Faiz is backed by the harmonium of Rehmat Ali Khan who accompanied Nusrat for many years. Faiz displays the family heritage of a descendant of seven generations of qawwali musicians with a warmth of tone that is rooted in the Punjabi Doaba style of music. If there is sometimes a fierce, almost hysterical edge to Faiz’s style, this is tempered by the peaks his voice reaches and his ability to rein in the excesses with stylistic variations that show originality and daring. Many could see this album and the year 2004 as a turning point for one who set out behind Nusrat’s shadow at the tender age of 16.

September 2004


Daniel Brown


  

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