Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan; World Music Star

Pakistan’s top classical singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, who mixed traditional mystic music with modern fast beats, died Saturday in a London hospital, a close British friend said.

Iftikhar Quaisar said Khan, 49, died of cardiac arrest after being admitted to a hospital a few days earlier suffering from hepatitis.

Pakistan’s official APP news agency said the singer was taken to the hospital after he suffered “complication of renal failure due to diabetes.” He had left Pakistan for the United States last week for a kidney transplant but stopped over for a few days in London, where his condition deteriorated, APP reported.

The scion of a family known for its attachment to classical music, Khan popularized the region’s traditional mystic Qawwali form of music and semi-classical Pakistani music in the West by mixing it with popular modern fast beats.

He composed music for several foreign films, including Hollywood’s “Last Temptation of Christ” and India’s controversial Hindi film “Bandit Queen.”

Though Khan has long been cited as an inspiration by such Western pop-rock stars as U2, Sting and Peter Gabriel, the singer’s visibility in this country increased dramatically in 1996 through his duets with Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder for the film “Dead Man Walking.”

Reviewing Khan’s sold-out concert at the Universal Amphitheatre that year, Times pop music critic Robert Hilburn noted: “With the simple beauty and dynamics of his voice, Khan--without a word of English--transports listeners in ways that are liberating and glorious. . . . [He’s] simply the best mix of charisma and passion that has arrived here from the world music community since reggae king Bob Marley.”

Pakistan’s President Farooq Leghari and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif issued condolence statements, calling the singer’s death a national loss, according to state television.