Paying tribute to one of the world’s great vocalists, Brooklyn Qawwali Party formed to honor the legendary Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, reworking his thunderous songs for an eclectic, eleven-piece orchestra comprised of groundbreaking jazz musicians. Funky, smart, and loving, BQP captures the joyful spirit of this Pakistani sufi music in a unique instrumental blend of jazz and Qawwali. With five horns, guitar, bass, harmonium, and three percussionists, this band's buoyant rhythm will be sure to get you on your feet and clapping.

A singer does not acquire the nickname “The Voice From Heaven” for no good reason. And anyone that has ever heard Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan knows this moniker to be fitting. Yet Nusrat was more than a singer; he was an ambassador of Sufi/Islamic culture and art, as well as the modern seed of a seven-hundred-year-old lineage of qawwali singers. In his all-too-brief life, he transformed the sufi music of Pakistan into something ready for – some would say craved by – global audiences.

While alive Nusrat attained the stature and respect of artists like Bob Marley and Fela Kuti, and yet, outside of his own forward-thinking projects (alongside Michael Brook, Peter Gabriel and Eddie Vedder), little has evolved the qawwali form. Until we consider Brooklyn Qawwali Party, that is. An eleven-piece ensemble of New York City-based jazz musicians united under the banner of Nusrat’s legendary music, BQP is one of the most exciting and dynamic groups performing today.

BQP founder/percussionist Brook Martinez had heard Nusrat’s music on occasion, but it wasn’t until watching his Live at Meany performance that a flame was kindled. After graduating from NYU, rather than continuing his education in an Ethnomusicology Master’s program, Brook opted for a more direct hands-on learning experience by working at the World Music Institute. While there he noticed that more Nusrat records were available in their CD store than any other artist and took an increased interest in Nusrat’s magic. Having tied together the bonds between faith and devotional-based practices with folk musics in his own jazz education, Martinez was taken by the force of Nusrat’s soulful determination.

“The sacred sounds that I yearned to find in western jazz were emanating from Nusrat in this completely foreign music,” he says. “But the similarities to jazz were immediately apparent: improvisation within the form of simple melodies.”

Qawwali music, which includes a deceptively simple arrangement of harmonium, tablas, handclaps and numerous vocalists, is extremely complex in presentation. The music is not, however, complicated to listen to. Audiences are immediately drawn in by the lush textures of vocals, and the repetitive themes underlying each song, which may last for fifteen or twenty minutes. Like life, qawwals create songs that move in waves and express numerous and contradictory emotions simultaneously.

Nusrat was a master at this. Translating the poetry of men like Hafiz and Rumi, he knew that life was a balance of forces, and expressed it in every song. Hence you have music that adds a delicate touch to thunder. This is the essential quality BQP has sought to transcribe in their own takes of his music, and by the sounds of their live shows, as well as their recordings, they are succeeding.

“The vocal embellishments of qawwali (and Nusrat in particular) reflect all of the highest aspirations of all jazz and creative musicians,” adds BQP trumpet player. “The melodies are virtuosic yet soulful, technically astounding yet emotionally concentrated. Despite its mystical themes, exotic harmonies and twisting Urdu incantations, the essence of qawwali music is both approachable and universal. The music draws out our basic needs to connect and rejoice, and in this pursuit the ensemble serves a good greater than the sum of its parts.”

“Nusrat's particularly unique arrangements are filled with exciting twists and turns that, for me, as a listener who could not directly understand the language, made his music that much more intriguing and assessable as compared to other qawwali artists I had listened to,” says Martinez. “Nusrat revolutionized modern qawwali by integrating virtuosic hindustani classical interludes into qawwali music, often recognizable as extremely fast passages sung with solfege-like syllables instead of words that build tension and release back into the main melody of the song. Especially because BQP is playing these songs instrumentally without the original poetry, when I am looking to transcribe a particular Nusrat performance, I try to find one that integrates these interludes and thus vitalizes our interpretations. Gradually, BQP is getting to a point where we have more freedom to improvise these interludes within the context of any of our songs.” 

Martinez also sees the importance of sharing the music, and culture, of the Middle East at such a turbulent and socially charged period in America. In performing this eastern music in a western context, BQP hopes to open up the listener’s heart beyond today’s political strife and into the universal love that is so blissfully apparent in the qawwali song. At root, qawwali, in its poetry as well as its underlying music, is dedicated to communion. In the same way, BQP embodies this concept in the most essential aspect: artists united under music, sharing their passion of one incredible artist with brand new ears.

“BQP seeks not to impersonate the qawwali aesthetic, nor fuse it with disparate modern elements. We are respectfully relating this music through the lens of our own experiences, as improvisers and instrumentalists. The band appeals to several generations of listeners – both South Asian and Western – because it presents Nusrat’s music with reverence and openness. Within the ensemble, individual accents and timbres add to the choir supporting Nusrat’s catalogue, closely aligned with the late great singer’s own need to push traditions forward.”

In BQP, “The Voice from Heaven” surely lives on.