Asha Puthli

Asha Puthli is a singer-songwriter, producer and actress from Mumbai, India.

Asha Puthli
Background information
Born (1945-02-04) February 4, 1945
Bombay, India
GenresJazz, pop, disco, electronica
Occupation(s)Singer
Years active1970–present
LabelsCBS/Sony, PolyGram, TK, Autobahn, Top of the World
Websitetheashaputhli.com

She performed the vocals on the album Science Fiction by jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman and has recorded solo albums for EMI, CBS/Sony, and RCA.[1] Her recordings cover blues, pop, rock, soul, funk, disco, and techno and have been produced by Del Newman and Teo Macero [2].

Early life

Puthli was born and raised in Bombay and began training at an early age in Indian classical music and opera. She listened to jazz and pop music on the radio, which led to her interest in fusion.[3] At thirteen she won a contest in which she sang "Malagueña". The victory encouraged her to begin improvising with a jazz band at local tea dances. Ved Mehta described her singing in his book Portrait of India.[4] She graduated from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda with a B.Sc. degree.

Music career

After receiving her degree, Puthli received a dance scholarship from Martha Graham and moved to New York. John H. Hammond at Columbia had read Ved Mehta's portrait of her in Jazz in Bombay.[3] After hearing a rough demo, he signed her to CBS Records. She sang lead vocals on the Peter Ivers Blues Band's cover version of "Ain't That Peculiar" which was reviewed favorably in Cashbox, Rolling Stone, and Billboard. Take It Out On Me, the band's album featuring Puthli, was released in 2009.[5]

Hammond sent her to audition for avant-garde jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman, who was looking for a singer for his album Science Fiction (1971).[6] For the album, Puthli sang on two songs, "What Reason Could I Give" and "All My Life".[3] For her work on Science Fiction, she shared the Downbeat Critics' Poll award for Best Female Vocalist with Ella Fitzgerald and Dee Dee Bridgewater.

Puthli's popularity grew not in the U.S. but in Europe[7] where she signed a record deal with CBS. Her solo albums reflected her interest in pop, rock, soul, funk and disco. She gravitated toward the glam world of Elton John and T. Rex. Her self-titled debut was produced by Del Newman, and it included cover versions of songs by JJ Cale and Bill Withers. She hired Pierre LaRoche (makeup designer for David Bowie and Freddie Mercury) and photographer Mick Rock to shoot the cover.[8] The album included a disco version of "I Am a Song" by Neil Sedaka.[9]

Film and fashion

During the 1970s, Puthli starred in lead roles in Merchant Ivory's Savages and Bruno Corbucci's The Gang That Sold America (Italian title:Squadra Antigangsters).[8] Her sense of fashion brought her visibility. A headliner at Studio 54, she was dressed by designers Michaele Vollbracht and Manolo Blahnik and photographed by Richard Avedon and Andy Warhol.

In the twenty-first century, she sang on Asana Vol. 3 by Bill Laswell and Hey Diwani, Hey Diwani by Dum Dum Project. In 2005, she returned to the UK charts with "Looking Glass" from the album Fear of Magnetism by Stratus.

Her song "Space Talk" from the 1970s, a popular tune with David Mancuso's The Loft crowd, has been sampled by P.Diddy, The Notorious B.I.G., Dilated Peoples, Governor featuring 50 Cent, and Redman; and her cover of George Harrison's "I Dig Love" was sampled in 2005 for the chart-topping track "Reload It" by UK Mobo award winner Kano. She has co-writer credits with Jay-Z, P.Diddy, The Neptunes, Jermaine Dupri, SWV and The Notorious B.I.G. on the track "The World is Filled" from the multi-platinum album, Life After Death.[8]

In August 2006, she headlined Central Park Summerstage in New York City on an eclectic bill with DJ Spooky, Talvin Singh, Outernational and Prefuse 73 and special guests Dewey Redman and Dres (rapper) of the hip-hop group Black Sheep.[10]

Praise by critics

Music critic Ann Powers in The New York Times called Puthli a "fusion pioneer".[11] Music critic Robert Palmer called her singing "extraordinary".[12] Her third solo album, The Devil is Loose, was called an instant classic by The New York Times. Thom Jurek of AllMusic called it " a masterpiece of snakey, spaced-out soul and pre-mainstream disco."[13]

Discography
  • Asha Puthli (CBS, 1973)
  • She Loves to Hear the Music (CBS, 1975)
  • The Devil Is Loose (CBS, 1976)
  • L'Indiana (CBS, 1978)
  • 1001 Nights of Love (Autobahn/Philips 1979)
  • I'm Gonna Kill It Tonight (Autobahn 1980)
  • Only the Headaches Remain (Woorell 1982)
  • Hari Om (Sony 1990)
  • Lost (Kyrone 2009 )

As guest
  • Science Fiction, Ornette Coleman (Columbia, 1971)
  • Mirror, Charlie Mariano (Atlantic, 1972)
  • Squadra Antigangsters (Cinevox, 1979)
  • Easily Slip Into Another World, Henry Threadgill (Novus, 1989)
  • Export Quality, Dum Dum Project (Times Square/Groovy, 2001)
  • Mpath - Wanderer, Gardner Cole (Triloka, 2003)
  • Accerezzami, Fausto Papetti (2003)
  • Asana Vol 3: Peaceful Heart, Bill Laswell (Meta, 2003)
  • Fear of Magnetism, Stratus (Klein, 2005)
  • Asana OHM Shanti, Bill Laswell (Meta, 2006)
gollark: Just stick in a GPS receiver - that provides you with both location, obviously, and the super-accurate timing data GPS provides - probably some sort of microcontroller, whatever display you want, rather a lot of battery, and probably a solar panel or something.
gollark: Wouldn't even be too hard.
gollark: You could make a watch work anywhere on the Earth's surface.
gollark: I mean, you could do *some* of that.
gollark: <@382169220693360641> Antidisestablishmentarianism.

References
  1. Pareles, Jon (August 12, 2006). "Asha Puthli, an Indian Singer Who Embraces Countless Cultures". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  2. Mandel, Howard (February 2007). "Reclaiming Singularity: Asha Puthli". DownBeat. Vol. 74 no. 2. p. 26.
  3. Marmorstein, Gary (2007). The label: The story of Columbia Records. Thunder's Mouth Press. ISBN 1-56025-707-5.
  4. Jhaveri, Niranjan, "Features" in Jazz Forum: The Magazine of the European Jazz Federation, No.17 (3/72), June 1972, page 69.
  5. Frank, Josh, and Charlie Buckholtz. In Heaven Everything Is Fine: The Unsolved Life of Peter Ivers and the Lost History of New Wave Theatre. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008, p. 80.
  6. Huey, Steve. "Science Fiction". AllMusic. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  7. Bush, John. "Asha Puthli". AllMusic. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  8. Pareles, Jon (12 August 2006). "Asha Puthli, an Indian Singer Who Embraces Countless Cultures". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  9. Jurek, Thom. "Asha Puthli". AllMusic. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  10. Sisario, Ben, "Listings: Asha Puthli, Prefuse 73, Talvin Singh (Sunday)" in The New York Times, August 11, 2006, https://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/11/theater/11thea.html
  11. Powers, Ann (April 30, 2001). "Critic's Notebook; From India, Many Sounds, All Pulling Inward". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  12. Palmer, Robert (July 30, 1976). "Mardi Gras Indians-And a Sound Like Raga Meeting Aretha Franklin". The New York Times.
  13. Jurek, Thom. "The Devil Is Loose". AllMusic. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.