Asha Puthli

Asha Puthli
Background information
Origin	Bombay, India
Genres	Jazz, soul, funk, disco, pop, ambient music, electronica, Indian music
Years active	1970–present
Labels	CBS / Sony, Polygram, TK Records, Autobahn Records, Top of the World

Asha Puthli is an Indian-born singer-songwriter, producer and actress.

Best recognized for her daredevil vocals on the "Science Fiction" album by jazz iconoclast Ornette Coleman, Asha Puthli has recorded ten solo albums for labels like EMI, CBS/Sony, and RCA. She is a 'world music' pioneer and an intrepid cosmopolite.

Her recordings, which span styles like blues, pop, rock, soul, funk, disco, and techno, have been produced by the likes of Del Newman (who has produced Elton John and Cat Stevens), and Teo Macero (who has produced Miles Davis and Vernon Reid).

Born and raised in Bombay, Asha began training at an early age in Indian classical and European opera. With a dream to synthesize Indian music, Asha gravitated to western popular music emanating from her home radio. From Voice of America she consumed jazz masters like Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole, and she became acculturated to British and American pop singers like Dusty Springfield and Cliff Richard through Sri Lanka's Radio Ceylon.

She won a competition at thirteen singing "Malaguena," which gave her the encouragement some years later to begin improvising with a jazz band at local tea dances. This nascent scene was chronicled in Ved Mehta's chapter "Jazz in Bombay" from his classic book Portrait of India. Asha's sultry, four-octave soprano that has been described by scholar Niranjan Jhaveri in the following manner: "The ability to manipulate her voice and to introduce certain glissando effects embellishments and textures descend directly from Asha's training in the Indian classical idiom. Her improvisations are the envy of the best instrumental technicians in jazz". Music journalist Ann Powers, writing for The New York Times, called her a "fusion pioneer".

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