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Stealing Hearts
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India Abroad, Stealing Hearts >>
The singer gives new life to Kronos Quartet's Grammy-nominated album
Asha Bhosle, who at 73 calmly declares that she does not believe in retiring. performed in New York and Boston over last weekend, not only winning new fans but also giving a new boost to her widely reviewed, Grammy-nominatcd album with Kronos Quartet, You've Stolen My Heart: Songs From R D Burman's Bollywood.
Released about six months ago, the album caught the attention of many main stream publications, including Village Voice in New York, and is being sold in the world music sections of major music stores in more than 100 cities in North America, Europe and Australia.
"She has been one of my very favorite singers for more than a decade, and R D Burman has created some of the most melodious songs of the 20th century," said David Harrington, the artistic director of Kronos Quartet. The album, in which Asha has six re-imagined and freshly
recorded R D Burman (popularly known as Pancham) compositions, also has several Burman numbers played by Kronos.
In her recent American sojourn, Asha was also promoting her new double CD, Asha Bhosle. Love Supreme, hoping that the thousands who had bought the Kronos CD would go for her new musical venture.
Both CDs were sold following her concert with Kronos at the Carnegie Hall in New York and the Berklee Performance Center in Boston. In addition, she also autographed the album at a well-publicized appearance at the Virgin Megastore at Times Square in New York.
Whatever one has to say about her new album, good or critical things, one should not use the word remix.
'1 do not believe in remixing,' Asha had said in an interview with India Abroad/rediff.com as she was getting ready to go to San Francisco to record with Kronos Quartet about a year ago.
'Rearranging is the word I like,' she explained. 'In a remix they do all kinds of crazy things. I believe that in rearranging the fidelity of the tune is retained. We may change the tempo of a song, or as the Kronos have done add a new layer, inspired by the original tune, to the new version. But the integrity of the original composition is never lost.
'Kronos, particularly David Harrington (the artistic director of the quartet), have the greatest regard for Pancham's music. And that is one of the reasons this reworking of Pancham's work is going to be musically very satisfying.'
She repeated that explanation several times in her latest interviews, adding she has recorded some of her old hits and the songs she has loved to discourage people from buying the 'horrible remix' CDs.
Recording anew such Burman classics as Dum maro dum (Hare Rama Hare Krishna as well as the non-film Rishte bante hain) with the Kronos, one of the best-known American bands, she was fulfilling the composer's long-held dream.
'He was very fond of Latin music,' she said. 'He wanted to collaborate with musicians from Mexico, Spain and also with innovative composers in America. He believed in fusion music even before the word became fashionable, and many of our musicians such as Zakir Husain were working with Western artists.'
Finally, she said, 'Pancham's music is going to reach listeners worldwide because Kronos have fans all over, and what is also very important is that a new generation of Indians across the world are going to listen to these songs.
'They will want to listen to more of Pancham's compositions, and make him even more popular.
'Rahul [Burman] was interested in all types and forms of music, and this instilled in me the spirit to be more adventurous as well,' she told the Boston Globe recently. 'There can be no more lasting impact than the fact that my collaboration with Kronos was nominated for a Grammy. Rahul wanted his music to be heard all over the world - and all this would have made him very happy.'
The album Love Supreme offers in one CD Asha rendering many ghazals, giving them a contemporary sound. And in the second, there are eight originally recorded duets including the ones that team her with sister Lata Mangeshkar and Burman.
Many mainstream critics noticed Love Supreme quickly.
The first CD has a twist, wrote Chris Nickson in his All Music Guide. 'They're all given a contemporary sound, like Aawargi, which opens with a Cuban piano riff before moving into light funk and back,' he continued. 'But their function is simply to form a frame for Bhosle's supple voice, which is always going to be the star. She can sound like an ingenue or a matron, with a gorgeously seductive sweetness that's impossible to resist. There are soft hip-hop grooves (Rafta Rafta) and some pieces that fall close to ballads (Mijhe Turn Nazar Se).
'It might not be the thing to win her new converts,' Nickson wrote, 'but then again, once you've heard her voice, you're instantly a fan. But it's more Bhosle to hear, and that's always a good thing.'
Asha has said in her previous interviews that while 'rearranging' her songs, she is conscious that her voice has considerably mellowed, and she prefers the new versions of her hit songs. 'I am not singing in a high-pitched voice,' she said, with a chuckle.
The Associated Press also joined many American publications and radio stations in reviewing Love Supreme, and brought the CD set to the attention of worldwide readers and music critics.
'Asha Bhosle, the illustrious Indian singer whose voice is often is the voice Bollywood movies,' wrote the review, 'never ceases to amaze with her versatile voice.
'The eight love songs (in the second CD) include a mixture of pop, funk, jazz and many more musical genres, but Bhosle's voice outshines all accompanying back ground music.'
Praising her rendition of such numbers as Sarofcri Jaye Hoi (Ahista Ahista) and the lingering, intoxicating Chupke Chupke, the review said: 'Although it seems older generations tend to appreciate ghazals more than today's youth, Bhosle's voice, along with the 'lounge-type' music, caters to all ages and reminds audiences why Bhosle is often labeled a living legend in the music industry.'
-by Arthur J. Pais
04/21/06
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