ALISHA SUFIT
Alisha Sufit was born in Hampstead, London, in 1946, and is best known as the singer songwriter with the 1970s Magic Carpet band. She is also a visual artist, author and poet. She was a student at the Arts Educational School, London, where she studied dance and drama. Later she attended Chelsea College of Art, London, and the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France. On leaving art school, she began playing guitar and writing her own songs, performing in clubs and colleges around the UK.
In 1971 she joined with ex Chelsea College of Art fellow student Jim Moyes, plus Clem Alford (sitar) and Keshav Sathe (tabla) to form the band Magic Carpet. The band released one eponymous album in 1972. After a launch at the 100 Club in London, a performance at Cleo Laine and Johnny Dankworth's Wavendon theatre, radio airplay on Pete Drummond's BBC Radio Sounds of the Seventies, plus several club and festival appearances, the group disbanded in 1972.
During the 1970s and 1980s Alisha Sufit played as supporting artist alongside numerous musicians of the era including The Enid, Fairport Convention, Terry Reid, the guitarist Davey Graham (Davy Graham), the Incredible String Band, amongst others. She was invited to appear at the Incredible String Band's I.S.B. Convention concert in Leeds in 1994.
By the 1980s Alisha was developing a repertoire of jazz standards and also writing her own jazz-oriented compositions. She made numerous performances accompanied by musicians such as Peter Ind, Pete Sabberton, Chucho Merchan, Nick Weldon, Dave McCrae. The Magic Carpet album began to receive acclaim some 15 years after its release, the original LP now a sought-after collectable on the international vinyl market. It was reissued on CD and heavyweight EMI audiophile vinyl by the Magic Carpet Records (UK) label. The signed limited vinyl edition of 1,000 copies quickly sold out. For more information, click the web site link below:
In 1993 Alisha released the album Alisha Through the Looking Glass on both CD and heavy-weight EMI audiophile vinyl format. The album consists of 12 songs with contributions by Ray Warleigh (saxophone), Bernard O’Neill (bass), Keshav Sathe (tabla), Mamadi Kamara (congas / percussion), Chris Haigh (fiddle) and Alan Dunn (accordion). In 1994 she released Love And The Maiden, a signed limited edition CD album of her early recordings with sleeve notes by UK guitarist Davey Graham.
In 1996, Magic Carpet sitarist Clem Alford and Alisha Sufit collaborated again to record the album Once Moor, subtitle Magic Carpet 2, featured in Sound On Sound magazine.
http://www.soundonsound/magiccarpet
In 1999 she contributed two tracks to the album Women Of Heart and Mind, a compilation of women singer-songwriters. In 2005 she contributed to the compilation album Many Bright Things with her song Silver Witch, accompanied on mandolin and bass by Frank Defina. In 2012 she contributed a track to the compilation album Electric Eden.
In 2008 Alisha Sufit's song The Phoenix, from the Magic Carpet LP originally released in 1972, was included in the double CD album A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble (Exploding In Your Mind) compiled by FSOL / The Amorphous Androgynous. The album was highly praised in the media by Noel Gallagher of Oasis who invited Gaz Cobain and Brian Dougans of FSOL to remix the Oasis single Falling Down; Alisha Sufit appeared as featured vocalist on the track.
She also joined the live band The Amorphous Androgynous for performances in Kazan and Moscow in 2008, in Kiev and at the Green Man and Electric Picnic festivals in 2009. The tour ended at the HMV Forum in London.
Alisha Sufit recorded lead vocals for the the Beatles song Let It Be with The Amorphous Androgynous band for the commemorative anniversary album, Let It Be Revisited, released by Mojo magazine in October 2010.
Falling Upwards, her first novel, was published in November 2012 in ebook format. The paperback version was published in December 2012.
In 2015 she contributed two tracks to the compilation recording Not In Our Name, an anti Iraq war anti-Tony Blair album released in December 2015.
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