I first met Dr Hiromi Lorraine Sakata in the 1980s with my dear friend and anthropologist Dr Adam Nayyer on one of their visits to Lahore. She was introduced to me as a PhD in ethnomusicology and was teaching at a university in the United States. That she had been a keen student of Indian classical forms, specialised in the music of Islamic societies and that she had written a book on the music of Afghanistan. She was in Pakistan because she was inspired by the music of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and was pursuing him all over the world, recording his performances to archive them in the United States.
The best place of course for qawwali performance is the shrine and she very avidly followed each of his concerts, at the urs of Baba Farid in Pakpattan, Data Sahib in Lahore or the barsi of Fateh Ali/ Mubarak Ali in Faisalabad. She was totally unaware and unconscious of the fact that she happened to be the only woman in a milling male crowd. There she would be wedged between the throng with her equipment and recording devices, helped in no small measure by the effervescent Adam Nayyer.
She collected a sizeable amount of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s recordings and was in a position to ask her university, the University of Washington in Seattle to offer him residency for a year. This was and is a very prestigious assignment where the likes of Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan had been before him. He was the first Pakistani to be requested to take up this very prestigious position.
In Pakistan, there has always existed a wide gap between the practitioners of music and the ones who have a theoretical understanding of it. When Nusrat Fateh Ali was offered this position he was very reluctant because he thought of it as dealing with words, formal teaching arrangements and an academic regimen that he was totally unfamiliar with. He was primarily a performing artiste at the height of his popularity then. He had almost become the most recognisable figure among musicians from the subcontinent.
He was forever performing -- if not in the country then all over the world and it was staggering as to how much energy and drive he had to travel and perform incessantly. All this was handled by Iqbal Naqibi, his manager who was illiterate but had amazing administrative skills.
He was also reluctant because if he took time out, something like a full year, then his performance schedule would be affected and he would not be able to meet with his international obligations. But it also implied that about a hundred people who were directly or indirectly connected with him (his entourage or his group) would have no work for that period. Indirectly he had to look after about a hundred families and that could only be managed if he performed without a break.
So it was a very difficult decision but he was convinced by none other than Dr Sakata. She told him of the prestige involved with the position as well as the contribution that he would be making to music by sharing his musical ability with the students and faculty of one of the best schools of ethnomusicology in the world. He accepted the assignment on the condition that it should be reduced to six months and that he needed breaks within the term for certain urs he could not miss for reverential reasons like the one at Data Sahib in Lahore. All his conditions were met and he took up the position in 1992.
One of the prerequisites of the contract was that he had to undergo a complete medical examination. The doctors told him that he was hugely unfit and suffered from all kinds of problems -- diabetes to blood pressure to some kidney malfunctioning, and advised him to take medicine but also exercise like walk for about an hour everyday and control his diet. They also informed the university authorities about the state of his health and warned them of a possible breakdown.
Nusrat Fateh Ali had hardly ever walked in his life. He only walked from the bed to the van, from the van to the stage, at airports or while going to the toilet. He was always seen in his house sitting on his bed with the harmonium by his side or perched on his huge belly. More than anything else it was exercise that he was most averse to while he stayed at Seattle. He wound up his assignment by doing a memorable concert at the university which was appreciated by the faculty and students from all over the United States.
Like most artistes, he did not overtly worry about his health and did not fret over changing his lifestyle. When the doctors told him about the fear to his life he only replied "if God will so."
After his stint at the Washington University, he continued with his whirlwind schedule of performing all over the world. So great was the demand and the pressure that he had to do three concerts in one night -- hopping from one to the other not wanting to disappoint his fans and hosts. Such was his temperament that he could not say no and often overstretched himself to meet with his obligations.
He was exhausted and, as the doctors had feared at the University, he started to have breakdowns and multiple organ malfunctioning. He died only four years later, hardly 50 at the time. Everyone was saddened by his untimely death but none other than Dr Sakata as she came all the way for his funeral. He had ignored her banter about cutting on his unhealthy diet and exercising but in the 25 odd years of his creative life he made ordinary people partake in the "Muse" through his music numbers.
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan passed away on August 16, 1997.