Shahbaz Qalandar

"Shahbaz Qalandar" invokes Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, the thirteenth-century Sufi saint of Sindh, through one of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's most ecstatically powerful performances. The devotional fervor here is not metaphorical — this is music designed to induce spiritual states, and Nusrat's escalating intensity reflects centuries of qawwali practice aimed precisely at transcendence. His voice begins at an already considerable pitch of intensity and ascends from there through elaborate improvisations that seem to outpace what human vocal cords should be capable of. The traditional percussion builds beneath him into something almost trance-inducing. The backing ensemble responds with increasingly urgent affirmation. By the track's climax, the boundary between performer and prayer has dissolved entirely. This is music that operates on the body before it operates on the mind — you feel it in your chest, your spine, behind your eyes — before understanding arrives.