Asha Puthli was discovered by John Hammond Sr., who discovered Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.
No other Indian artist in musical history has practiced greater freedom in their musical choices: though Asha Puthli is a jazz improviser at heart, her major label recordings reflect her wide-ranging aesthetic: Indian classical, avant-garde jazz, traditional jazz, r&b, soul, funk, disco, rock, techno, ambient, new wave, new age, Bollywood, bhangra... Forward-thinking and boundary-breaking, Asha Puthli freely moves between these styles and created her own unique sound in the 1970s - soft, slinky, sexy, meditative, and chilled out. Just as eclecic and often over-the-top, her album covers show her interest for glam rock.
Her ethereal soprano voice smoothly gliding over dance beats inspired artists such as Blondie and Donna Summer, who followed this path to world fame.
Celebrated by Studio 54 where she gave her first concert - attended by her friends Placido Domingo, Zubin Metha, Tennessee Williams - she has been photographed by Andy Warhol, Richard Avedon, Annie Leibovitz. Books featuring Asha include photographer Mick Rock's " Blood and Glitter", "Andy Warhol's Exposures" and "Francesco Scavullo Photographs 1948-1984".
She has won the Downbeat Critics' Poll award for "best female jazz vocalist" in a tie with Ella Fitzgerald and Dee Dee Bridgewater. She recorded, sung, or shared the stage with Ornette Coleman, Dalida, Grace Jones, Renato Zero, Barry White, Patti Smith, Django Reinhardt, Lionel Hampton... Sampled by The Neptunes, Jay-Z, The Notorious B.I.G and P.Diddy, Asha Puthli is a free spirit and an artist whose music is extremely eclectic. She also worked with filmdirectors such as Louis Malle, James Ivory and Bruno Corbucci.
For this next record, Asha Puthli has been collaborating with producers Mauro Paoluzzi and Dario Carli.
We can expect a very rich and spiritual album, to be released at the end of 2008.
Asha Puthli
BIO
Singer Asha Puthli has just finished recording her new album in the South of France, with independent Parisian label Kyrone GP Music.
In a studio near Menton - a city she loves and that inspired many of her favourite creative spirits : Cocteau, Saint Exupery and Reza for instance - perched on the hill and overlooking the Mediterranean sea, she in her turn used the aura of the surroundings as a source of inspiration.
