Clan’s Sacred Trust

Pakistani singer Rahat Ali Khan must feel like a prince waiting to be crowned king. The 24-year-old musician (who performs Wednesday at the Galaxy Concert Theatre in Santa Ana) is the nephew of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the vaunted qawwali vocalist known for his ability to send audiences into states of spiritual and physical ecstasy.

For 600 years, the art of qawwali--a sacred music of Sufism, a mystical Islamic sect--has been passed down through the male members of the Ali Khan clan. Because Nusrat does not have a son, some observers consider Rahat to be the family member best suited to inherit the qawwali torch from Nusrat.

It’s a notion that the young singer, who recently left his uncle’s performing group for a solo career, does not dispute.

“When [Nusrat] retires, I wish him good health,” Khan said through his interpreter and manager, Baba Varma, during a phone interview Tuesday from Karachi, Pakistan. “If he has to retire, I will be the person who takes his place. This is the traditional way. . . . The dynasty continues like that.”

In recent years, Nusrat has talked openly about retiring. He’s in his late 40s and is battling kidney problems; he’s on dialysis. Last year, a few critics noted that Nusrat, while still a commanding presence and a stirring interpreter of qawwali, seemed to be singing with less power than in some of his previous performances in the United States.

Khan said his uncle and mentor has given his solo career his full blessing and that his departure from Nusrat’s group was an amicable one. He embarked on his own career, he said, partly because Nusrat felt that audiences should experience his nephew’s talents center stage.

At a raucously received concert in the Pyramid at Cal State Long Beach several years ago, Rahat’s passionate, high-pitched singing proved a strong counterpoint to Nusrat’s lower-range vocalizing.

Still, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan remains the dominant figure in qawwali, a spiritual exercise known for its improvisational passages as well as the repetition of certain key words. For three decades, Nusrat has been the source of rabid fan devotion among his Sufi followers--and, increasingly, among Western pop fans.

Nusrat, who revolutionized qawwali by introducing Western rhythms and instruments, teamed with Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder in 1995 to deliver the title song from the Tim Robbins film “Dead Man Walking.”

The movie’s popular and acclaimed soundtrack, which also included several other Nusrat tracks, vaulted him into the Western spotlight, though world-music aficionados in the States have been seeking out his recordings and concerts for more than a decade. Last year, he also collaborated on an album with Canadian multi-instrumentalist Michael Brook.

These days, it’s practically fashionable to be a Nusrat devotee. His 1996 U.S. tour attracted the likes of Madonna and R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe. Singer Joan Osborne even traveled to Pakistan to get singing tips from the rotund artist.

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Nusrat’s fame in the West has opened the door for a handful of other qawwali vocalists, including Shehr Ali and Mehr Ali. But Rick Rubin’s American Recordings label (home to such rock artists as the Jesus and Mary Chain and speed-metal mavens Slayer) is betting that it is Rahat Ali Khan who will sit atop the qawwali throne eventually. That’s why the company recently signed him to a recording deal.

Rubin is scheduled to produce Khan’s debut album sometime this year. The plan is to send the singer on an extensive tour of the United States, Europe and Japan after the disc is released. The label’s hope is that he will broaden his appeal by hooking up with some festival dates that include Western pop acts.

Khan’s touring group will include 13 performers. Nusrat also performs with a large tribe of supporting singers and musicians. Khan’s Galaxy concert, however, will be a stripped-down affair featuring only five players, including a percussionist and a harmonium player. (A harmonium is a small, hand-pumped organ that is standard in qawwali music.) He’ll also will be aided by two singers, including his father, Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan, who is Nusrat’s brother and a longtime member of Nusrat’s group.

Khan explains that this smaller group configuration is more in line with what audiences would experience in Pakistan at a more traditional qawwali performance.

“The band is smaller,” he said, “so I will be concentrating more on my voice and doing [things] with classical [qawwali] music.”

His expects his debut album to be a fairly traditional work that will not drift too far afield into Western music. Still, he expresses enthusiasm for some American pop music and is open to incorporating more of those elements into his future work.

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He was exposed to Western music and culture early in life, having first toured Europe with Nusrat at the age of 8. Khan was just 7 when he first performed on stage with his uncle.

Are there any non-Pakistani artists he would like to perform with?

“I would like to perform with Mariah Carey,” he said. “I like her voice very much. I would like to meet Kenny G very much to teach him classical music from India. I would like to teach Kenny G how to play Indian ragas on his instrument,” he said, referring to the improvisational pieces typically played on the sitar. “There’s a lot of Kenny G music in Pakistan.”

According to Khan, qawwali is not just spiritual music in his native country but pop music as well.

“In the last 25, 30 years, qawwali has become very popular in Pakistan. It’s performed in the mosques. But you can hear it at marriage parties and private functions. . . . People there are proud that the music from Pakistan is being listened to all over the world.”

* Rahat Ali Khan performs Wednesday at the Galaxy Concert Theatre, 3503 S. Harbor Blvd., Santa Ana. 8 p.m. $15. (714) 957-0600.