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The latest offering by Times Square Records (released on March 7, 2006) is a compilation of Asha Bhosle numbers on a 2-disc album. The singing sensation, Asha Bhosle needs no introduction but yet for protocol sake, I will attempt to do so. Younger sister to the Nightingale of India (Lata Mangeshkar) might be an almost impossible tag to shrug off but Ashaji did just that. Not only did she carve her own niche in singing for “vamps and the bad girls”, but she moved on to lend her versatile voice to soulful numbers [first for O.P. Nayyar] that you normally wouldn’t associate her with.
In later years, she surpassed (in my opinion) her elder sister in pure virtuoso-like manner by expanding her extent of music. In an age when skin-infested videos ruled the roost at the Indi-pop scene, her pop albums like Janam Samjha Karo and Kabhi Toh Nazar Milao (with Adnan Sami) in her inimitable style were the rage of the nation. I bet she is the only grandmother who has recorded songs with Boy George, Code Red, and Michael Stripe leaving them awe-struck at her singing abilities (I can never forget that Channel [V] Awards performance).
Asha Bhosle – Love Supreme is an attempt to introduce this bundle of versatile talent to Western audiences. With interest in Bollywood peaking in America and elsewhere, India’s music industry has caught the attention of people too and of course, who better than Ashaji to lead the charge. This album is packed with 19 Asha numbers on a 2-disc collection. The first CD contains newly-recorded ghazals and the second contains a selection of romantic duets by Ashaji herself. The ghazals are gentle soulful reminders of a music that is enjoyed at leisure and the full range of Ashaji’s voice gives intense depth to the soul of these ghazals. Not an intense fan of ghazals, I listened to them on a tired weekday night as I prepared my dinner. However by the time, I finished with the first CD, I was yearning for more.
The second CD was much more to my taste in music. It refreshed my memories of many golden oldies that you associate with Ashaji. Upbeat, vibrant, and flamboyant – are few epithets you would associate with typical Asha Bhosle numbers but apart from Aaja Aaja Main Hoon Pyar Tera from Teesri Manzil, Ashaji preferred to go for her soulful romantic numbers. Probably they are much dearer to her heart but I would still prefer to present Asha Bhosle in her finest element if she wants to make a lasting impact on Western audiences. With this selection, she may be aiming for the Norah Jones audience and trust me, that is a great strategy but if it were me, I would go for the popular audiences.
Her success on the Indi-pop scene shows that she definitely can do it. When she won the MTV’s Indian Viewers’ Choice Award in 1997, Sheela Raval a journalist described her perfectly - “The high priestress of Bollywood music has gone for an image make-over. At 64. And granny’s looking glamorous. The middle-class Maharashtrian housewife next door is the new pop icon, taking over from the no-holds-barred young breed.” Ibelieve she has done it before and she can definitely do it again.
To conclude, I would definitely recommend going in for Asha Bhosle – Love Supreme purely for its first CD although the second CD ain’t bad either.
Full Disclosure: I was sent this CD for review purposes at Desicritics.
by Patrix | on Wednesday, March 15th, 2006 at 3:00 am | 
India, Music, Recommended . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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March 15th, 2006 at 7:04 am reply
Patrix,
Asha also got a Grammy nomination in the Best Contemporary World Music category last year (?) for her recording with the Kronos Quartret: You’ve Stolen My Heart: Songs from R.D. Burman’s Bollywood. The album was featured prominently featured on NPR’s World Cafe, among other plases. Do listen to it if you get the chance.
Anyway, nice reviews (of the CD and the book earlier). But I would like to point out that you try to sound too critic-like (for the lack of a better word) in these posts. It is different from your freewheeling style of writing in the rest of the blog. IMHO, you should not try to wear a reviewer’s cap and instead write about these books or CDs from the blogger’s perspective. It would be a much more enjoyable read.
Cheers,
BongoPondit.
March 15th, 2006 at 7:35 am reply
love the new header pix…….still dislike all this ad stuff on the new site tho…….
March 15th, 2006 at 10:39 am reply
Bongo, I guess reviewing is not my forte although books are more easier than music. I try to review them from a blogger’s perspective (whatever that means).
M, the ads are the same from my previous blog; in fact there is less clutter here - no “I swear by..”, or “things I love…”
March 15th, 2006 at 2:09 pm reply
Patrix,
Perhaps I should try to clarify what I was trying to say in terms of the blogger versus reviewer/critic perspective. As a critic writing for a newspaper (or even an internet news portal), you are somewhat restricted, firstly regarding word length, but more importantly in that you have to mostly follow a certain style. You usually start off with introducing the artist, or the work of art or perhaps an anecdote relating to the artist and his work. This is followed by a brief description of plot-lines and finally going into the critiquing business where you either find flaws or say how marvelous everything was. Except in the rare cases, such as a Kael or an Ebert, this style does not provide flexibility for the personal touch.
In case of bloggers otoh, it is almost always a personal perspective on news, incidents, books, films or whatever. As a long time reader of your blog, I and others are also familiar with that perspective. I guess that familiarity was what seemed to be missing in these reviews. I want to make it clear that I do not mean this in any negative connotation. It was just that as I was reading the reviews, it did not seem to have been written by you, the blogger I am familiar with, but by someone who is perhaps consciously trying to emulate a different style.
Don’t know if this makes much sense either, the whole feeling is too intangible to express in writing properly.
cheers,
BP.
PS - 1. Would it be possible to provide comment preview on the blog ?
2. Your comments RSS feed is providing the same headlines as the entry feed - is that a problem with my reader ?
March 15th, 2006 at 4:07 pm reply
Bongo, I did get what you were trying to say. I thought my reviews especially those of books have always been personalized to my experiences (like the one I did for Untouchables). This was my first music review and I also felt that I wasn’t completely equipped to do it. In the future, I’ll probably stick to reviewing books.
I am not sure why the comments RSS is messed up. I recently installed a plugin that syncronizes my entries feed with Feedburner but I left comments untouched. Are you using this feed? And I’ll look for and install comment preview tonight.
Update: Live Comment Preview plugin added.
March 19th, 2006 at 3:43 pm reply
I have always liked Asha more than Lata.:). Did you not write about something in similar line previously? Not a review, but a general opinion.
March 19th, 2006 at 4:19 pm reply
Queer, not that I remember of. I tried looking for something I wrote on Asha Bhosle previously but couldn’t find what you were referring too. I like Asha more because of her tendency to try out new things and adapt with the times…not so with Lata who can claim to be a better singer but probably doesn’t work for me.