Artist page

Korla Pandit, born on September 16, 1921, in St. Louis, Missouri, was an American pianist, organist, composer, and television music performer. In the late 1940s, he adopted a fictional persona as a French-Indian, which he maintained throughout his life, even keeping his true identity a secret from his children. After moving to California in the early 1940s, he initially took on a Mexican alias due to the discrimination faced by black musicians. Following his marriage, he created the Korla Pandit character. By 1948, he was regularly performing in Hollywood and composed music for the popular radio series "Chandu the Magician." In the 1990s, he experienced a brief revival of his career amidst the resurgence of Exotica and the Tiki-lounge subculture. Korla Pandit passed away on October 2, 1998, in Petaluma, California.

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