Asha Puthli - The Essential Asha Puthli

2022 CD collection.

From the 1960s to the present, Indian singer, dancer, actress, and model Asha Puthli's career has followed only her own muse. Though she won a best female vocalist nod from Downbeat critics for her arresting appearance on Ornette Coleman's 1971 Science Fiction, her story begins years before and continues for decades. While her best-known CBS albums have been reissued, Mr. Bongo's 20-track Essential is the first anthology to range across her catalog, revealing her dalliances in psych, Indian classical, Bollywood, vanguard jazz, pop, soul, disco, new wave, and rock.

The set opens with "Pain," from 1968 by the Savages. Puthli wasn't a member, but she guested on the B-side of this trippy exercise in East Indian psychedelia. She doesn't enter until midway through, but claims the arrangement from the winding, labyrinthine lead guitar, improvising across an ever-intensifying instrumental swirl. Also included are three of four tracks from a 1968 EP with the Surfers, which are all covers of then-current pop hits. Her hallucinatory reading of Bobby Hebb's "Sunny" rivals every other version for originality. Thankfully, both appearances from Science Fiction are included.

While Downbeat critics embraced "What Reason Could I Give" and "All My Life" as new vocal frameworks for jazz, Puthli's performances were deeply tuned to Coleman's visionary bridging of soul and jazz. "Mirror" from 1972, marked her showstopping appearance on saxophonist Charlie Mariano's avant-jazz-blues fusion album of the same title. "Right Down Here" and "Lies" were drawn from her 1973 self-titled debut. On the former, one can hear the kind of moldering nocturnal R&B Grace Jones created almost a decade later. The piano vamp in the latter foreshadows the Atlanta Rhythm Section's "So into You," but Puthli's powerful vocal explodes the comparison. The title track from 1976's The Devil Is Loose and the oft-sampled classic "Space Talk" are here. The latter offers her canny command of R&B and jazz phrasing amid sheeny, silky Euro-disco production. Further, Puthli co-wrote all of the album's songs. "One Night Affair," from 1975's Teo Macero-produced She Loves to Hear the Music, is jazz-inflected, disco-kissed New York R&B, with a soaring chorus and roiling backbeat. "I'm Gonna Dance" and "Music Machine," from 1978's L'Indiana, are frenetic dancefloor exercises that Puthli lords over with sexy, commanding cool.

The title track reprise from 1979's 1001 Nights of Love weds Indian classical and electro to cinematic production. "Mister Moonlight" gorgeously channels Donna Summer's dancefloor dramatics amid hedonistic polished production. "Prism of the Sun" weds droning sarod and ambient synths under Puthli's elegant, deep-blue croon. "We're Gonna Bury the Rock with the Roll tonight," from 1980's I'm Gonna Kill It Tonight, is new wave peppered with chanted choruses, jagged beats, and a rockabilly progression. "Chipko Chipko," from 1990's Hari Om, is dancefloor-oriented Hindustani dream pop. Beautifully curated with the artist's full participation, Essential's sources are diverse, while sound is (mostly) exemplary. This is not only a solid introduction but a definitive overview of an iconic (ongoing) career.

Thom Jurek ~ AllMusicGuide