Gig Alert: Brooklyn Qawwali Party

 Brooklyn Qawwali Party
"Musst Musst"
Playing FRIDAY at: Littlefield (622 Degraw St., Gowanus)
Get: Tickets ($10) | Directions

Qawwali is the ecstatic music of Sufi mystics in Pakistan, best known from the work of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, one of the most famous musicians in South Asian history. The music is hypnotic, driving, and in the hands of Brook Martinez and his Brooklyn Qawwali Party (BQP), downright funky. After graduating from NYU, Martinez rounded up a rotating cast of capable horn players and began to arrange Khan’s music for the group, blasting audiences away with high-powered unison melodies and frenetic percussion. Tonight, BQP is joined by Brazillian maracatu-country maestros Nation Beat, as part of a Littlefield series titled “Is America Part of the World?” The answer, we’re hoping, is yes.