When he died in 1997, Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was the foremost exponent of Pakistani devotional Qawwali music, rooted in the 700-year tradition of Persian Samah religious song, as perpetuated by Sufi devotees of the Prophet Mohammed. Listeners who saw Dead Man Walking will immediately recognize the evocative Qawwali sound from Nusrat’s sparkling contribution to the film soundtrack.

Following Qawwali tradition, Nusrat chose as his musical apprentice his nephew, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, when he was still a youth. Rahat trained at his uncle’s feet, joined his entourage and sang at his side. He received the master’s mantle upon his uncle’s death, and at his behest, assumed direction of his uncle’s ensemble. This album is Rahat’s self-titled debut, superbly produced by American Recordings.

A sinuous vocal artistry resides at the heart of Qawwali tradition, in which vocal call-and-response plays a critical role in building the music’s compelling emotional tension. Instrumental accompaniment comprises dramatic tabla hand percussion and handclapping, and the unique sonorities of the harmonium, a keyboard instrument powered by a hand-pumped bellows. (Allen Ginsberg followers will recognize the instrument and its organ-like sound from the poet’s harmonium use in his poetry readings.)

As a devotional form Qawwali seeks to inspire and elevate listener and performer alike, inducing a sense of inner peace and ecstatic spiritual rapture. Revealing himself as a worthy successor to his uncle, Rahat performs four extended songs on the album, the shortest exceeding 12 minutes in length. This is unequivocally music for reflection and meditation. Rahat’s invocations cultivate a soothing, hypnotic quality, and while the tabla often surges to the fore, the accomplished instrumental array ornaments and enhances without ever overpowering the stunning vocal solo and ensemble performance. The interlocking voices weave and wail, swoop and soothe in perfect cadence, borne ever higher upon a robust rhythmic and melodic underpinning. Rahat Fateh Ali Khan is a singer of powerful intonation and imaginative projection whose every vocal nuance constitutes a piercing cry from the soul by an emergent master.