Korla Pandit - Biography
By J Poet
Korla Pandit was one of the first stars of black & white television, when the medium was in its infancy. He wore a turban, claimed to be from New Delhi, and said he was ten thousand years old. He played a Hammond B-3 electronic organ, a brand new instrument at the time, on KLAC in Los Angeles. He had a regular program of exotic music that featured him decked out in turban, staring seductively at the camera. He never spoke, but sent millions of housewives into a trace with his striking good looks and dark complexion. He recorded frequently for Vita, a small LA indie label, India Records, his own imprint, and Fantasy, a new label at the time, and the logo that brought him to national attention. His career faded in the 60s, but during the exotica revival of the late 90s there was new interest in his music and Pandit played a few concerts for long time fans and new converts.
Korla Pandit said he was ten thousand years old and gave few interviews during his career. When he did speak the details of his birth, world travels and musical education were sketchy and contradictory. He was a hypnotist, a guru, a spiritual seeker, an enigmatic personality full of mystery, a perfect romantic figure for early TV, exotic but not threatening as he played classic pop tunes with just a hint of world music influences - a trace of Latin and Arab music - in his arrangements.
Pandit was born John Roland Redd in St. Louis, and raised in Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa. He was African American, possibly with some Native American and Spanish blood. He played piano in high school and in 1943 was living in LA and working as staff organist at radio station KMPC in Pasadena, one of the stations that started the FM revolution in the 60s. He was using the name Juan Rolando and made a few records for Capitol Records’ Radio Transcriptions Division that were never released. In the mid 40s he played supper clubs and lounges, slowly building a career.
In 1948, as Korla Pandit, he provided music for the dramatic radio show Chandu The Magician, an adventure series aimed at adolescents; it was carried by the ABC network. Chandu was an American who had learned the mysterious secrets of the orient while studying yoga in India. He used his powers to fight the evil “that threatened mankind” and wore a turban, which may be where Pandit got the idea. In 1948 he met Klaus Landsberg of KTLA. He offered Pandit a daily 15-minute show provided he also accompany the live children’s program Time For Beany, a puppet show created by Bob Clampett. (Beanie later became a successful animated series.) It was Landsberg’s idea that Pandit remain silent and gaze romantically at the audience. Korla Pandit’s Adventures In Music went on the air in 1949 and lasted for 500 performances. In the 1950s he played piano on sessions for The Sons of the Pioneers on RCA and recorded his own singles and albums for Vita including the four record 78 RPM albums Korla Pandit’s Musical Gems (Vita 1951), Remem’bring (Vita 1951) and Merry Xmas (Vita 1951). They were also released as 10” LPs. In 1951 he played a sold out concert at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium and got three encores.
Again at Landsberg’s suggestion, Pandit began playing piano and organ simultaneously on his show. Louis D. Snader, a promoter of telescriptions - 16 mm film clips that were syndicated to small TV stations around the country – signed Pandit to do 10 shows. They made him famous all over the country. In 1952 he appeared on Jimmy Durante’s TV show, and Snader asked him to do 52 more telescriptions. Pandit did about half of them before he quit after a business disagreement. Snader replaced him with a young piano player named Liberace.
In 1954 he started his own India label and made one album The Universal Language of Music (1954 India). Soon after, he was signed by Fantasy and made his first stereo records. He moved to The Bay Area in 1955, where Korla Pandit’s Adventures In Music became a hit on KGO, San Francisco. Pandit made 13 Fantasy albums: Music of the Exotic East (1958 Fantasy), Latin Holiday (1959 Fantasy), Tropical Magic (1959 Fantasy), Speak to Me of Love (1959 Fantasy), Korla Pandit at the Pipe Organ (1960 Fantasy), An Evening with Korla Pandit (1960 Fantasy), Music of Mystery and Romance (1960 Fantasy), Love Letters (1960 Fantasy), Music from Hollywood (1960 Fantasy), Hypnotique (1961 Fantasy), Music for Meditation (1961 Fantasy), Korla Pandit in Paris (1961 Fantasy) and Christmas with Korla Pandit (1961 Fantasy).
By the early 60s, rock’n’roll made Pandit’s style music difficult to market, but he kept performing concerts and revived India records for Korla Pandit Live at The Rialto Theater (1968 India), The Grand Moghul Suite (1971 India), and The Pipes of Pan (1971 India). He had a bit part in Richard Pryor’s Which Way Is Up? in 1977.
In 1987, during the “Tiki Revival”, Pandit played a few California dates. He appeared as himself in Tim Burton’s 1994 film, Ed Wood, silent as he played his Hammond B-3 organ, and when the exotica revival of the late 90s came, he did a few more California concerts for long time fans and new converts. Pandit died in 1998, in Petaluma, California. Albums available on CD include: Exotica 2000 (1995 Sympathy for the Record Industry), Oddyssey (1996 Fantasy) a twofer with Music From The Exotic East and Latin Holiday, Remembering Korla Pandit (1999 Dejavu), Buried Treasure/Cocktail Hour (2007 Dejavu) with unreleased tunes by Korla Pandit and Juan Rolando, and The Grand Moghul Suite/ The Universal Language of Music (2007 El Acmem).
