Asha Puthli - Asha Puthli (2020 Mr Bongo RSD Blue Vinyl Reissue Vinyl LP)

Asha Puthli - Asha Puthli | Vinyl LP - 2020 Mr Bongo RSD Reissue, Blue Vinyl (MRBLP221)

• Asha Puthli's 1973 CBS debut, produced by Del Newman (Elton John collaborator), signed by John Hammond at Columbia after her vocal appearances on Ornette Coleman's Science Fiction (1972) won her the DownBeat Critics' Poll for Best Female Jazz Vocalist
• Nine tracks crossing jazz, soul, funk and proto-disco, including cover versions of George Harrison's "I Dig Love," Gladys Knight's "Neither One Of Us," and Neil Sedaka's "I Am A Song"; cover shot by Mick Rock with makeup by Pierre LaRoche
• "Let Me In Your Life" was sampled by Action Bronson for "Terry" (2015) and by Chris Brown for "Loyal" (2014)
  

Asha Puthli was born in Bombay in 1945, trained in Indian classical music and opera, arrived in New York on a Martha Graham dance scholarship in 1969, and was signed to CBS Records by John Hammond — the Columbia A&R director who had discovered Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen — after he read about her singing in Ved Mehta's Portrait of India. Hammond sent her to record with Ornette Coleman, and her performances on Science Fiction (1972) won her the DownBeat Critics' Poll award for Best Female Jazz Vocalist. When the commercial climate for avant-garde jazz contracted, she moved to London and recorded this debut with Del Newman, best known as Elton John's arranger and producer, for CBS in 1973.

The album moves across jazz, soul, blues and early disco with a voice that is genuinely unusual: supple, improvisational, capable of intimacy and abandon in the same phrase. Del Newman's production sits it squarely in the early 1970s glam-funk world without losing Puthli's jazz instincts. The track selection ranges from originals to covers: George Harrison's "I Dig Love" — which Puthli has described as stripping the Beatles' spiritual reading and bringing out its sexuality — sits alongside Jim Weatherly's "Neither One Of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)" (the Gladys Knight and the Pips hit), Bill Withers and Isaac Hayes's "Let Me In Your Life," and Neil Sedaka's "I Am A Song." The cover was shot by Mick Rock with makeup by Pierre LaRoche, who also worked with Bowie and Mercury. This pressing is the Mr Bongo Record Store Day 2020 reissue on blue vinyl, licensed from Puthli directly.