Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

Dama dam, mast

Photo by Aaron Cloward / Unsplash

Always feel a tremendous, enlivening rush when I listen to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. ❤️ Especially tonight, after the day's events in New Delhi, with the arrest of Abhijeet Dipke and Neha Bora. The soul needs something to keep going and tonight, it must be 'Dama Dam Mast Qalandar'. This is him and crew performing at a concert in 1993.

My knowledge of music amounts to little but I have always enjoyed watching him sing, lost and found in his qawwali, the frissons of his murki and the full-throated soar of his taan (not unlike Joe Cocker's 'Come Together' but with much more spirit, somehow). Can't help but think he is singing a beautiful, hopeful story right there, in the moment, purely of music and heart.

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