Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

East Indian singer Sheila Chandra was a pop phenomenon before the term "world music" as even invented. At 16, as a member of the group Monsoon, the English-born performer had a Top 10 hit with "Ever So Lonely," a clever synthesis of Indian melody over a Western dance beat. And in 1982, when she sang the song on Britain's Top of the Pops TV show, Chandra wore a sari, the traditional dress of Indian women. Today, although she's only 26, Chandra finds herself the veteran in a growing field of Asian artists--one whose influence is increasingly being felt in the mainstream. In fact, East Indian culture is a cornerstone of this year's WOMAD festival at Toronto's Harbourfront. And Chandra...

When Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan performs, people get high. They break into tears, fall into trances and feel like they’re flying. They may even see God. It’s something the Pakistani singer’s proud of—actually it’s his mission in life. Yet Khan, who performs Sunday with his seven-member “Party” at Roy Thomson Hall, has nothing to do with drug-induced states of ecstasy. As the world’s leading performer of qawwali, the devotional music of Sufi Muslims, his approach is purely spiritual. It’s a tradition that dates back to the 12th and 13th centuries. Sufi poems, praising Allah and his prophets to music, are sung in Urdu, Punjabi or the original Persian language. And a qawwali ...