No one could blame the Indian singer Asha Puthli for a little name-dropping. The collaborators and benefactors in her career since the late 1960's include, just for starters, Ornette Coleman, Martha Graham, the Notorious B.I.G., the filmmakers Ismail Merchant and James Ivory, and the talent scout John Hammond. She has scandalized India and delighted British talk-show audiences; she has been a catalyst in German disco and an Italian B-movie actress.

With a four-octave range and a lifelong ambition to synthesize East and West, Ms. Puthli has sung jazz, disco, rock and Indian music. She is to perform her first New York City concert in 25 years tomorrow at Central Park SummerStage - joined by the jazz saxophonist Dewey Redman and the rapper Guru - followed by a Joe's Pub date on Sept. 13.

DOWNBEAT MAGAZINE
BY HOWARD MANDEL

Asha Puthli has been one of jazz’s mystery women for 35 years. Late last summer she made a rare visit to New York City and left audiences, again, wondering where she’s been.

In 1972, from the opening bars of “What Reason Could I Give” from Ornette Coleman’s Science Fiction, Puthli’s voice blossoms with beguilement, modesty, candor, intimacy, precise articulation, tensile strength, nuance and insight. On “All My Life,” opening the LP’s second side, she expresses acute longing and immense satisfaction in her first two phrases. Those performances indelibly cast the perfect vocal complement to Coleman’s harmolodic evocation of emotional and psychological truths in beautiful song, and won Puthli high scores in that year’s DownBeat Critics Poll. Great things were near.

Asha Puthli is an Indian phenomenon. Thirty-five years after her debut, she remains one of India’s most successful artists. Like Madonna, she continually reinvents herself. That’s no surprise—her vocal talents range from free jazz to electronica. This year, she’s releasing a remixed collection of her classic songs entitled Space Talk: The Best of Asha Puthli, The CBS Years and on August 13, Puthli brings her sultry vocals to Central Park SummerStage, where she’ll sing with special guests Dewey Redman, Guru, Solar & DJ Doo Wop. British (via Delhi) DJ Talvin Singh kicks off the event with a rich recipe for fusion, mixing Indian bhangra and drum and bass. Both he and Puthli believe in matching and mashing musical styles that create an exciting blend of genres.