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A performer learns with experience and with age. I did not know the future when I left home and started out to begin my career: I started qawaali; then I met Peter Gabriel and was exposed to a lot of new ideas.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

You’ve got to sing from the depths of the heart. Without heart, you cannot be a Qawwal.
NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN

Deep Heart Music Sing Yourself
My father gave me formal education in raagdari. He died in Lahore in 1964 when I was 13. I was in the tenth year of school, and my father’s brother took me into the qawwali ensemble and started giving me formal education in qawwali.
NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN

Death Education Father Formal Himself Music Myself
Yes, I tried to change the classical style in a way that people who don’t understand it can enjoy.
NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN

Change Classic Enjoyment Myself Style Understand
It is not necessary that the scion of a singing family, even if he sings, can excel in it. In order to reach his peak he has to work very, very hard.
NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN

Family Hard Necessary Order Reach Sing
I am not a Sufi, but I follow the Sufi.
NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN

Follow Music Myself Religion
I was just studying with my father, a very difficult task for me since he was a great, great Qawwali singer.
NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN

Difficult Father Greatness Himself Study
A man learns all his life and dies the day he thinks that he has learnt everything.
NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN

Himself Learning Life Man Thinking
There should be change – the West should understand our music and culture, and vice versa. With such collaboration, artists can come closer to each other and come to know each other.
NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN

Change Culture Each Other Music Understand
A performer learns with experience and with age. I did not know the future when I left home and started out to begin my career: I started qawaali; then I met Peter Gabriel and was exposed to a lot of new ideas.
NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN

Age Beginning Career Future Ideas Myself Performance Start
I like to experiment with my voice, besides music.
NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN

Experiment Music Myself Voice
From childhood, I had been instructed in the tablaa by my father, along with the astaais and antaraas specific to our Gharana.
NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN

Childhood Father Instruction Myself Specific
In my opinion, being an all-rounder is good. It is not right that I should be content with qawwali and ignore other forms, since I am basically trained in classical singing. We should be masters of all forms of singing.
NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN

Form Goodness Ignorance Myself Opinion Sing Training
I do listen to other music though, and try to pick up what is good.
NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN

Goodness Listening Music Myself
There are two languages that I love: Farsi and Panjabi. Because the depth of Sufi thought in these two languages cannot be found in any other language.
NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN

Depth Finding Language Love Music Myself
There is a famous musician, Peter Gabriel, who has used my voice in the movie, ‘The Last Temptation of Christ.’ He used my song in the background.
NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN

Ground Himself Movie Music Voice
Yes, you’ve got to sing from the depths of the heart.
NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN

Deep Heart Sing Yourself
People listened to Farsi texts, and to the great texts of our Baba Bulleh Shah, Khwaja Ghulam Farid, Mian Mohammad Bakhsh Jehlmi. People do listen to it these days, but much less than in those days.
NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN

Day Listening Music People Time
I also like Western classical music and jazz.
NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN

Music Myself Preference Type
As the times change, people change, and so do their tastes, so I try to understand what the public wants, what they require. I have tried to make the music a bit easier for them to understand.
NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN

Change Myself Public Taste Time Try Understand
When people start dancing, they dance like they don’t know they are doing it.
NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN

Dance People Start Unknown