Lata Mangeshkar, one of India's most famous singers, has died at the age of 92. Sometimes called the "Queen Of Melody" or the "Nightingale Of India", she was, with her sister Asha Bhosle, one of the most influential Bollywood playback singers. Her career spanned 70 years, during which time she recorded songs in 36 Indian languages as well as in English, Russian, Dutch and Swahili.
She was listed as the most recorded artist in history in the Guinness World Records in 1974 (the same year she became one of the few Bollywood singers to perform at the Albert Hall) with claims of over 25,000 songs, but this was disputed. Whatever the real figure, she did record thousands of songs in her long career, and also composed music and produced films.
She was awarded India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1969, and the highest award in Indian cinema, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, in 1989. Her funeral was attended by Indian PM Narendra Modi, Asha Bhosle and a host of dignitaries, including many famous Bollywood stars and producers.
Mangeshkar was born into a Maharashtrian Brahmin family in Indore, Madya Pradesh, in 1929. Her father, who came from Goa, was a musician and all her four siblings -- Meena, Asha, Usha and Hridaynath -- became accomplished singers.
The death of her father in 1942 left her the breadwinner at just 13, so through a family friend she began to act and later sing. She worked on her technique and on her language skills for the next several years before she was taken under the wing of musical director Ghulam Haider who gave her a song, Dil Mera Toda, Mujhe Kahin Ka Na Chhora, in the 1948 movie Majboor, which turned out to be her first big film hit. She worked with many famous actors and producers like Naushad Ali, SD Burman and later AR Rahman. She became well known so quickly and her songs so popular that she became known by her own name, paving the way for playback singers to raise their profile.
She had a four-octave voice that she worked on throughout her career, creating her own inimitable style and recording well into her 80s. More than 7,000 of her rarest records are housed in a museum in Indore but there are plenty of great clips on the internet of her film songs, as well as live performances. Some of my personal favourites include Tera Mera Pyar Amar from Asli Naqli (1962), Chalte Chalte Yun Hi Koi from Pakeezah (1972), Tujhe Dekha Toh from Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), and a great duet with Kumar Sanu, O Paalanhaare from Lagaan (2001) -- a beautiful devotional song with music composed by AR Rahman.
Betty Davis, the influential and stylish funk pioneer, also died this past week aged 77. Davis was a chic model in 60s Greenwich Village, where she met musicians like Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone. She had relationships with several musicians including exiled South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela. Eventually, she tired of modelling and switched to music, recording for Don Costa's DCP International label. At the same time, she met jazz trumpeter Miles Davis and the two married in 1968. It was a tumultuous relationship that lasted only a few years, but not before Davis had introduced Miles to Hendrix and Stone's music (later to influence Miles' foray into jazz fusion).
After her marriage folded, Davis took off to London where she wrote some of the songs that formed the basis for her first self-titled release in 1973, which was followed by They Say I'm Different in 1974, and Nasty Girl in 1975. Davis was a determined artist -- she wrote, arranged and produced her own music -- and her live performances were too raunchy for US television and her songs were not played on some radio stations. But despite this she became a cult figure as a singer and performer, and her legacy inspired lots of hip-hop music and rappers and continues to the present.
Sadly, not all her recorded material was released. In 2009, the Light in the Attic label, which specialises in reissues, put out her fourth studio album Is It Love Or Desire? which had been languishing in the vaults for decades. The label is reportedly planning to release Davis' final album Crashin' From Passion in 2022.
John Clewley can be contacted at clewley.john@gmail.com.
