The first thing you notice is the chunking guitar and mandolin that Majawar Abbas adds to Nusrat's classic blend of male vocals, harmonium, and tabla here. The strings add a folksy element to these six religious songs, making this 1988 session about as warm and cuddly as Nusrat's spiritually charged qawwali music gets. Shorter selections with more nods to pop music arranging give the music a different character than that found on more traditional records, while remaining well short of the reinventions found on Nusrat's ...
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The first thing you notice is the chunking guitar and mandolin that Majawar Abbas adds to Nusrat's classic blend of male vocals, harmonium, and tabla here. The strings add a folksy element to these six religious songs, making this 1988 session about as warm and cuddly as Nusrat's spiritually charged qawwali music gets. Shorter selections with more nods to pop music arranging give the music a different character than that found on more traditional records, while remaining well short of the reinventions found on Nusrat's famous crossover collaborations with Canadian guitarist Michael Brook and others. This set begins with a friendly rendition of "Allah Hoo Allah Hoo," which was always a crowd-pleaser in Nusrat's legendary live shows. "Haq Ali Ali Haq" begins like a flamenco song full of lyrical melancholy, but as its praise for Hazrat Ali, the fourth Caliph, gathers steam, the tempo rises, and the mood shifts to righteous resolve and the blooming ecstasy that is qawwali's trademark. A love song, called a ghazal, opens with strumming guitar work that seems to promise Celtic music, but before long, you're back in familiar qawwali territory. This tends to be the pattern, colorful intros that morph into traditional qawwali. The final track, "Ni Main Jogi De Naal," starts out sounding like Greek bouzouki music. Some tracks fade out in order to stay in or around eight minutes. This tends to keep the energy several notches below that found in the full-blown, ten-plus minute selections featured on other releases. Call this back porch Nusrat, something you can enjoy without being whisked straight to heaven. ~ Banning Eyre, Rovi
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Add this copy of Devotional and Love Songs to cart. $2.97, fair condition, Sold by Goodwill rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Brooklyn Park, MN, UNITED STATES, published 1993 by Real World Records.
Add this copy of Devotional and Love Songs to cart. $3.99, good condition, Sold by Books From California rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Simi Valley, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1993 by Real World.
