Asha Puthli is one of the most successful vocalists ever to come out of India. Perhaps best known for her stirring vocals on free jazz legend Ornette Coleman's Science Fiction album, Asha is a cosmopolitan pioneer of jazz, funk, soul and electronic dance music who has recorded ten solo albums for major labels.
A quick glance at some of the artists with whom she has recorded, sung or shared the stage is a testament to her eclecticism: Alice Coltrane, Roy Ayers, Henry Threadgill, Grace Jones, Mirielle Mathieu, Sonny Rollins, Charlie Haden, Renato Zero, Barry White, Bill Laswell, Patti Smith, Nina Hagen, Don Cherry, Freddie Hubbard, and Django Reinhardt.to name a few.
Trained in Indian classical singing and a natural jazz improviser, Asha Puthli created her own unique sound in the 1970s - soft, slinky, sexy, meditative, and chilled out. Captured on classic recordings like "Space Talk" and "Say Yes," that distinctively cool sound prefigured the entire rise of acid jazz and ambient dance music. Today, as Asha Puthli prepares to release new material, her songs are being rediscovered by legions of hip-hop, neo-soul, nu-jazz, and electronica fans.
Asha's underground 1970s albums, helmed by renowned producers like Del Newman and Teo Macero, have become popular hip-hop break records, sampled by the likes of The Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z, The Neptunes, Jermaine Dupri, Jagged Edge, SWV, J-Walk, Governor Feat. 50 Cent, Dilated Peoples, Redman, P. Diddy and The Aboriginals; and her cover of George Harrison's "I Dig Love" was sampled by Diplo for UK Mobo award winner Kano's "Reloaded". In 2005, Asha also co-wrote and sings the lead vocal on Stratus'"Looking Glass." In 2014 Chris Brown's " Loyal" was a chart buster in USA and U.K. This year - 2015 - "Terry" another hit by Action Bronson who sampled Asha's cover of the Bill Wither's / Issac Hayes song "Let me in your Life".
Born and raised in Bombay, Asha emigrated to the United States to pursue jazz. Upon her arrival, Asha was championed by Columbia Records impresario John Hammond, who had forged a brilliant career discovering acts like Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. Hammond sent her to record with avant-garde pioneer Ornette Coleman, and her performances on his arresting Science Fiction album garnered her the highly prestigious Downbeat Critics' Poll award for "best female jazz vocalist," alongside Ella Fitzgerald.
Asha's series of inventive solo albums for CBS records, including her self-titled 1973 debut, 1975's She Loves to Hear the Music, 1976's The Devil Is Loose, and 1979's Asha L'Indiana, reflect the young singer's burgeoning interest in pop, rock, soul, funk and disco. Asha's gossamer, Eastern-influenced cooing over bass-driven grooves on songs like "Flying Fish" and "Space Talk" was the precursor to disco hits like "I Feel Love" and "Love to Love You Baby," and her four-octave soprano sound provided the sonic template for future electronic dance music hits by Blondie, Kate Bush, Ofra Haza, Kylie Minogue and others. Recognized in critical circles as a "fusion pioneer," Asha's distinctive, unusual recordings predate fusion of east and west celebrated today in styles like worldbeat and bhangra by almost twenty years.
During the 1970s, Asha also branched out into films, starring in lead roles in movies by Louis Malle, Merchant-Ivory and Bruno Corbucci. Her cosmopolitan sense of glamour rocketed her to visibility as a fashion icon: a Studio 54 headliner, she was dressed by A-list designers from Bob Mackie To Manolo Blahnik, and photographed by iconic lensers such as Richard Avedon, Andy Warhol, Francesco Scavullo, Peter Beard And David Bailey.
The new millennium saw Asha re-emerge as an in-demand guest artist on the electronica circuit, appearing on funk experimentalist Bill Laswell's Asana Vol. 3, "Hey Diwani, Hey Diwani" with techno-fusion group Dum Dum Project, and a variety of rare groove and yoga music collections. In 2006, she appears on Laswell's Asana OHM Shanti, an album that also features Karsh Kale, Pharoah Sanders, Grandmaster Dxt And Ustad Sultan Khan.
Like her mentor Ornette Coleman, Asha Puthli has always been ahead of her time, and now, forty plus years after her debut, she is finally taking her rightful place in the pantheon of jazz legends and fusion trailblazers. In 2013 The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles installed an exhibit of Asha Puthli's costume and albums as a music fusion pioneer from India, Another major exhibition which includes her first Jazz recording opened in 2014 at the Smithsonian, Washington D.C. in an exhibit titled " Indian Americans who changed the Nation".
Alan Mercer: Asha, I have learned so much about your life from the various interviews you have given, but I would like to know what the Andy Warhol world was like for you? I know you were a part of that whole scene.
Asha Puthli: We had a sense of great freedom in all kinds of ways. We were sexually liberated, intellectually liberated, politically liberated, I mean everything in every way. I would say we were like the Bloomsbury Group in England. This was that sort of very creative group. Andy attracted three kinds of people, the quirky, the creatives, and the socialites.
AM: Why do you think he liked you?
AP: I guess the reason he liked me was because I fit into all three. I presume that’s what he liked about me because I know he did like me, though I didn’t learn this until a few years later when the Whitney Museum had a show called, ‘Andy Warhol from A to B And Back Again.’ It was a retrospective of his work. The museum had a time capsule from Andy on exhibition. He had all his favorite things in that box. He had Marcel Duchamp’s book and I know he admired him very much, a book by William Burroughs, the Beatles Songbook, a Lou Reed record, and my record. The museum had placed my record right in the center of the display, so that was nice. When I realized he kept that record of mine in that time capsule, I knew he really loved it.
AM: Which record did he have?
AP: That was my first record that came out in 1973. Andy was actually the first one to call me in 1976 and he told me, “Asha, they are finally playing your record on the radio.” I told him that was impossible because CBS suspended me, because I was pregnant, and in those days if you got pregnant, they had the right to suspend you. So, they never released the album in America. I asked him if he was sure they were playing my music and he said, “Yes.”
AM: But, it wasn't you, was it?
AP: It turned out it wasn’t my music. It was Donna Summer singing ‘Love To Love You, Baby’ who had been inspired, I presume, because she came backstage to meet me in 1973, at the Show, ‘It’s A Go-Go’ where they did play my songs and the album was a hit. She was living in Munich then.
AM: That’s Gorgio Moroder too. He was the one inspired as well.
AP: He may not admit to that, but they were inspired by my album. When Andy told me he heard me on the radio, I found out it was really Donna Summer singing ‘Love To Love You’ sounding like me singing ‘I Dig Love.’
AM: What was an average day like back then?
AP: It was fun. We’d have lunches of Polynesian food at Trader Vic’s inside the Plaza. We would go to lunch there with people like Salvador Dali, Andy, the Dupont twins, who were so much fun. Anyway, getting back to Andy, he was always inspired by other people’s ideas. He would borrow the ideas quite often. Everyone already knows this about Andy, but he also gave ideas to people. He saw me performing rock n roll on German TV and he saw my eyes going back and forth. I remember he told me, “Asha, while you are singing, you should make those eye movements every time.”
AM: You are in at least one of his books.
AP: Yes, in the book, ‘Exposures.’ He took a picture of me. He gave me a lot of signed posters, but somebody stole them from me. I was too carefree, and I just let everyone come into my house in Manhattan. Those were the times of drugs, sex and rock n roll. I should have framed them and put them on the wall, but I just had them rolled up and someone got them.
AM: How many years did all this encompass?
AP: I met him in 1970 and I was in his world until his death. He told me that I reminded him of Holly Woodlawn and that we should meet. That’s how I met Holly. She was a Warhol Superstar. She was such a talented comedian and a fantastic actor. Holly and I became very close. I used to joke that Holly has the face of a woman and the body of a man and I have the head of a man and the body of a woman. Holly lived with me for a long time.
AM: You knew all the famous photographers.
AP: I remember Annie Leibowitz and her book. Because you are a photographer, I am thinking of these things to tell you. Holly invited Annie to come to my penthouse apartment. I had already made records and had a little money. I asked Holly not to tell Annie who I was because if these pictures make it to India, my parents will be very upset. In India a transvestite is looked down on. People will run the other way. I said I don’t want to be photographed and what does Annie do? We decide to go to lunch, and we are walking down the street and she took a photo of me, and I look really weird. Then she put it in a book and wrote something and essence was there was such an abandonment of traditional sexuality, you couldn’t help but be attracted to it. That was part of the whole Andy Warhol scene.
AM: Your performances in the Seventies were all filled with sensuality, eroticism and seductive. Was that the real you or just a projection?
AP: I think it was a projection.
AM: So, in real life you were more down to earth?
AP: I was a cold fish. (Laughter)
AM: You made several movies too. You must be a good actress.
AP: I don’t know if I’m a good actress, but I did make some movies. I never had an agent, and I still don’t. Whatever comes my way, I go with the flow. God watches over me. I am not ambitious, and I never went after money. I could have married very wealthy men if I had wanted to.
AM: Did you ever get married?
AP: I did get married to a very handsome man, but he was very difficult. He’s now married to his fifth wife. I was number one.
AM: Are you still friends?
AP: I try to be. I didn’t take anything from him. There is no reason for him to dislike me. Except that I left him. He never forgave me for leaving him.
AM: Is this the father of your son?
AP: Yes, that’s why I married him.
AM: Where is your son now?
AP: My son lives with me in Florida. I am getting old and he lost his wife to cancer.
AM: I’m so sorry. How long ago?
AP: Three and a half years ago.
AM: You must have a good relationship with your son.
AP: I adore him. He is the apple of my eye. The reason I did not take any child support from my ex-husband was because I wanted my son to have a good relationship with his dad. I never wanted his dad to begrudge him because I left his father.
AM: The universe will always take care of you.
AP: It does.
AM: I feel out of place in most situations. Your life gives me hope and inspiration.
AP: That is why we exist. We are here to inspire one another and work together. It’s all one big ball of wax.
AM: The only reason to be here on earth is create.
AP: And to be joyful.
AM: You seem naturally joyful.
AP: I am. I was born more naturally optimistic.
AM: How much does spirituality fit into your daily life?
AP: Very much so. When you asked me about the sexual part, I feel spirituality and sexuality are entwined. That’s the act of creation. When I recorded ‘I Dig Love,’ I deliberately did it that way with lots of sexual overtones. George Harrison wrote it that way, with an Indian and spiritual slant. He made it serious and meditative, so I wanted to make it fun and flippant.
