I asked myself that question the second I heard her voice.According to her website, Asha Puthli is "the original Indian diva of jazz, soul and funk". Well, knock me over with a feather, what could be cooler than that?How could I not have heard about Asha before? Her albums from the '70's have been sampled by everyone from The Notorious B.I.G. and Jay Z to The Neptunes, Redman and Dilated Peoples. She has performed and recorded with The Rolling Stones, Alice Coltrane, Roy Ayers and Django Reinhardt! Asha was born on Bombay, India. Blessed with a four-octave soprano, she began her career singing jazz standards and eventually landed in New York. John Hammond tried to get Asha a deal with CBS Records, and when that failed, got her some incredible session gigs, which is how I discovered her. I recently got ahold of The Peter Ivers' Band cover of "Ain't That Peculiar" with Asha on vocals (available on 'Knights of the Blue Communion', which deserves a post of its own). After the chart success of "Ain't...", Hammond sent Asha to Ornette Coleman. She appears on two tracks on "Science Fiction", one of Coleman's tightest albums. This being the 70's, Asha's unusual voice and outre style allowed her to make several glam/funk influenced solo albums, the first of which featured covers of songs by J.J. Cale, George Harrison and Bill Withers. Her third album, 'The Devil is Loose', is perhaps her most well known album, and can be seen as a prototype for the punky disco girl beats of everyone from Blondie to Goldfrapp. Here she is performing 'The Devil is Loose' in 1978.Asha did fusion before fusion was fashionable, and is still entrancing audiences today, appearing on Bill Laswell's 'Asana OHM Shanti' album and working on a new release of her own.Buy Asha's records at Dusty Groove.
Timothy Ritter says
There should still be some vinyl re-pressings of her records still floating around. I remember picking those up in the late 90's... but then that was before iPods closed just about every independent vinyl outlet in the midwest. I always thought of her as the "hindi Minnie Riperton"... hmmm... Have to pull those out tonight.
RobinH says
That is some outfit. Blinkin' flip '78, for some reason the music makes me think of the 'romantic' section of some 70's action film. Excellent!
ciphermedia says
Cool post Kate. Where did you find this? Like her a lot. What a wide variety of people to work with and be sampled by!
Just noticed there's a couple of comps on emusic with several tracks by her. One of them "here":http://www.emusic.com/artist/Asha-Puthli-MP3-Download/11630491.html seems to be a comp of Indian artists (apart from another track by Bill Laswell). I've run out of credits this month, but it actually sounds pretty good - kinda Indian dubbyish.
poebegone says
amazing find, as always, Kate. plus i love the voice! i hardly ever comment on here 'though i'm lurking all the time, but this one is making me gush.
fistula spume says
omigod omigod. That's the coolest. I'm feeling light headed. Great find Kate. I want it. I think there should be a box to check if you love something. I mean I do like this post for sure but I'm feeling like I like it more than that. You know?
Kate says
I'm glad you guys dig this as much as I do! Cipher- I found Asha when I was researching the Peter Ivers record mentioned above. There was literally 1 sentence hidden in a review and I knew I had to go searching for more about her. Now I have to look for those vinyl re-issues Timothy Ritter talked about.
pjebsen says
Instead of a "Trackback Ping" - which, unfortunately, isn't possible at MOG.com (yet ...):
I mentioned your post in my "Bollywood Soundtracks Group":http://www.last.fm/group/Bollywood+Soundtracks/forum/27215/_/300134 at "LastFM":http://www.last.fm/group/Bollywood+Soundtracks/forum/27215/_/300134.
I have heard about Asha Putli before but have to admit that I'm not really familiar with her music. Thanks to you, I'll check her out! :-)
Kate says
Pjebsen, thanks for the last.fm link!
C Fraher, hate to correct you, but the Cornershop tune is actually about another amazing Indian Asha, Asha Bhosle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asha_Bhosle
Check her out on a recent collaboration with the Kronos Quartet called "You've Stolen My Heart".
I asked myself that question the second I heard her voice.According to her website, Asha Puthli is "the original Indian diva of jazz, soul and funk". Well, knock me over with a feather, what could be cooler than that?How could I not have heard about Asha before? Her albums from the '70's have been sampled by everyone from The Notorious B.I.G. and Jay Z to The Neptunes, Redman and Dilated Peoples. She has performed and recorded with The Rolling Stones, Alice Coltrane, Roy Ayers and Django Reinhardt! Asha was born on Bombay, India. Blessed with a four-octave soprano, she began her career singing jazz standards and eventually landed in New York. John Hammond tried to get Asha a deal with CBS Records, and when that failed, got her some incredible session gigs, which is how I discovered her. I recently got ahold of The Peter Ivers' Band cover of "Ain't That Peculiar" with Asha on vocals (available on 'Knights of the Blue Communion', which deserves a post of its own). After the chart success of "Ain't...", Hammond sent Asha to Ornette Coleman. She appears on two tracks on "Science Fiction", one of Coleman's tightest albums. 
This being the 70's, Asha's unusual voice and outre style allowed her to make several glam/funk influenced solo albums, the first of which featured covers of songs by J.J. Cale, George Harrison and Bill Withers. Her third album, 'The Devil is Loose', is perhaps her most well known album, and can be seen as a prototype for the punky disco girl beats of everyone from Blondie to Goldfrapp. Here she is performing 'The Devil is Loose' in 1978.Asha did fusion before fusion was fashionable, and is still entrancing audiences today, appearing on Bill Laswell's 'Asana OHM Shanti' album and working on a new release of her own.Buy Asha's records at Dusty Groove.
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