Riding a wave of emotion: Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan at WOMAD 1985

When he took the stage, a little after midnight on Sunday morning, Nusrat had been leading his ensemble for 15 years, the latest in a dynasty that stretched back six centuries. His father had been one of the acknowledged greats of his generation, now Nusrat ran the family business, singing of love and faith, and devoting himself to the Divine.

Yet, for most at Mersea, he might as well have won a competition offering a late-night slot for unsigned talent: it was his debut in front of an audience where few would understand a word he sang, or have any prior knowledge of Sufism or its devotional music. Yet, as WOMAD co-founder Thomas Brooman remembered in his book My Festival Romance: “Anyone who saw Nusrat sing knew somehow that they were in the presence of something deeply mystical. A transcendental experience of inarticulate spiritual power.”

The concert that night ran almost four hours: while organisers worried about a rising tide that would cut off the island, Nusrat was inspired to keep singing by the audience’s reaction— it was only the pre-dawn cold that brought the show to a close. Moments came in thick waves. Folk Roots’ David Ambrose recalled “the most extraordinary experience” in his review of the festival. “A sort of a cappella Persian jazz that moved many of the audience to tears of joy. Breathtaking and one of the most wonderful sounds I’ve heard in my life.”

The appreciation went two ways. Nusrat left the festival convinced he could hold this audience’s attention beyond that performance and immediately booked himself into an Essex studio to record with modified instrumentation —guitars and mandolins featured— hoping this would provide his new fans with a route into his music. Released in 1986, Best Of Qawwal And Party Vol 1 was the fourth album on the nascent WOMAD record label. It was the start of a fruitful relationship with WOMAD, Real World and Peter Gabriel that lasted until the singer’s untimely death in 1997.

“It was instantly obvious the significance he was going to have for us,” says Amanda Jones of Real World Records. “And he quickly realised that Peter Gabriel was an artist of serious significance in the West and internationally, and understood that this could open doors.”

Very soon, Nusrat had three parallel career paths. In Pakistan, there was a constant stream of cassettes for longterm fans. At the state-of-the-art Real World Studios, however, he was simultaneously recording traditional qawwali and experimenting with other forms of music. “We wanted him to record qawwali albums such as Shahen Shah as he chose to perform them,” explains Jones. “We wouldn’t influence his repertoire on those at all but, at the same time, Peter was guiding him through Passion and Michael Brook was working with him on Mustt Mustt, which Massive Attack remixed for the clubs.”