Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Night Song

Album of the Week, September 26, 2026 In retrospect, it’s amazing that Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan took six years to follow up Mustt Mustt, his crossover qawwali + club album that he recorded for Real World with Michael Brook in 1990. Not only did the album do fairly big numbers—Real World has claimed over 600,000 albums sold, not counting sales in the Indian subcontinent—but the cultural impact was big, with reports that British youth in particular were turned onto more traditional qawwali music thanks to the album. But Nusrat was focused on his more traditional format, as we’ve heard, and it wasn’t until 1995 that Brook coaxed him back into Real World Studio to make a follow-up. The plan was different this time. Brook learned from the first encounter that Nusrat’s best vocal moments happened in the middle of improvisational flights, some of which lasted an hour or more. So instead of constructing loops and trying to marry Nusrat’s music up to them, here Brook started with Nusrat doing…