This guy was either ahead of his time or on the cutting edge of his…. This is electrónic music… played directly on the organ before the advent of drum machines, samplers or synths. It’s incredible the way he creates percussion by hitting the keys.
A little boast...Korla was a good friend. I hung out with him (and his son) for 10 years. I produced a concert and a CD for him as a tribute to the man I was first intrigued by as a young boy when seeing his image on the announcements my family received in the mail for his performances at a local revival theater.
@@ankitnarayan31 He was friends with Paramahansa Yogananda--hard to believe that Yogananda wouldn't notice that Pandit wasn't Indian. Maybe Yogananda knew but agreed to keep it a secret.
Yep! First time I saw the movie I saw the hands and said "Korla Pandit", making my wife, her brother and his wife say "WHO??" I wrote it down, they checked the credits at the end and there he was. When TV first came to my home town of Las Vegas NV, there were a lot of these "Snaders" to be seen. Korla was my mom's favorite. She noted that he never seemed to blink.
+madamerotten In the early days of television there was a push to be educational besides entertaining. People were fascinated with all things concerning exotic India at the time also. Lots of musical programming during the 50s and 60s.
From what I read, eventually, people were afraid that this guy was hypnotizing them so he was replaced by Liberace. Liberace ended up, stealing the staring into the camera a bit.
I'm in campiness overload! This guy was loved or mocked for his music and presentation in that era - much like Liberace, later. I vaguely remember hearing about him in the late 1950s. He wasn't taken at all seriously by other musicians, but certainly developed a big TV fan base - also like Liberace.
Turner: I met Korla I believe around 1985 (I have notes). The CD was a 1985 release on "Sympathy for the Record Industry Records" and called "Exotika 2000" (which had 24 page booklet insert by me). It's entirely solo, B-3 organ recorded as a favor from a friend in a little back studio at A&M records in Hollywood. It features a live track of Miserlou from a performance at a concert in a Drive-In Movie Theater in Azusa, California called "Azusa Palooza". FYI, I also brought Korla into a band.
He is awesome I wonder why I've never heard or seen of him before I can understand why women were attracted to him and people were attracted to this performance truly talented.
There was a very very good in depth article about him in Vanity Fair magazine. After I read it I was intrigued and then saw a picture of him at the Magic Castle (L.a area). He was also in a movie late in his life. I bought a couple of his records in a thrift store by the Huntington Beach pier in Calif.
I believe his real name was Johnny Roland Redd and he was from I think Indiana. That’s if my memory serves me well. It was about 2005 when I read about him.
Pandit was the organist on the second radio series of “Chandu the Magician” from 1948-50 on the Mutual-Don Lee Network. Trance Dance, in a slightly different arrangement, was the theme music for the program. Chan-DU, the MAGICIAN! (sound effect of large Chinese gong)
Well...its not cool how he abandoned my people and "passed" for something else. However, if a particular race wants a stereotype of Indian people , I guess they don't care how they get it!
I guess he did what he had to do to survive. Those were the times. At least his talent was able to shine. Few people are what they seem in Hollywood anyway. Many of the men don’t have their real hair, many of the women have fake boobs. If he told a little lie about his origins, so what? He delivered the goods.
You have to look at this in historical context. He becomes famous at a time when Black people were still not allowed to use the same bathrooms as white people. But here’s a black man who manages to get himself on national television passing as another race which on a certain level must’ve been hilarious to him.
While their is truth to Michael's lyric, "Korla Pandit" was likely neither solely black nor white, but about as mixed-race as is possible, so calling him "black" would be a misnomer. I find it odd that there are those who insist on calling mixed-race people black, as did some of of them (Tiger Woods came up with a word to reflect his mixed ethnicity: "Cablinasian" is the word-blend he coined to identify who he is, a one-size-fits-all definition of his CAucasian, BLack, American INdian and ASIAN ancestries).
I truly enjoy this I know the persona is a fake one but I enjoy it still I applaud him and being able to pull this off and was able to fool everyone so he can make a living as a musician it is sad that he had to create this Persona to be able to get into the entertainment industry but at the same time I do love everything about the music his style and the story I would have truly loved to have met this individual
In 1950 I was four years old and my mom who was in show business as a dancer, got one of the first TVs ever, we were living in Chicago then. So the TV show couldn't have been in the 40s as someone suggested. In 1958 I was living in Santa Barbara, age 12 and I never saw this show on KTLA so I appreciate you educating me about this! It didn't occur to me he was black, and as many people pointed out his reasons for inventing himself are unknown. But understandable, especially In those days when blacks were not fully accepted like they are more nowadays.the dancer seems very Indian to me: does anyone know the dancers name? He's great. Sorry I missed the PBS special: any chance it will be shown on UA-cam? I also noticed the unusual way he plays the organ with his left hand: i've never seen it played this way,almost like the way one would play bass or other instrument - - I love it when musicians make up their own way Of creativity. Does anyone know if he was self-taught or not? Are there any other videos of his where he used dancers? This is the only one I noticed. He must've had a lot of TV shows, thank you so much!
You could try a google search for him. I believe I remember Wikipedia having something. I grew up in the San Fernando Valley area from 1957 on. Los Angeles had a lot of stations available back then, a lot more than other areas. I remember seeing Korla Pandit in brief feature preludes to a show. Also saw him a few times as a guest on different early variety type shows.
Wonderful! These shows are what led to me ultimately becoming a belly dancer! Does anyone know what year these shows were on originally? I'm thinking late 40's... remember early 50's seeing these. Help?
I understand from a prep school classmate a doc has been completed on this artist. My classmate shot footage for the doc. Google to search. If that fails, tell me so, and I'll ask friend for details. Anything for a bellydancer, that's my motto. At your service.
Turner: Korla had two sons Shari and John. Shari passed away in recent times and John is tragically an alcoholic living on friends couches somewhere in Victoria BC.
I knew Shari and was shocked to hear of his passing. I was surprised to find very little info and video of him and his music (as he too was a musician in his own right) I only found 1 clip of Shari playing keyboard with Black Snake and none of him playing with The Muffs.
He was Indian. He was one of my first friends, and my earliest musical influence. my Grand Father and Korla were old friends , and we visited him often at his performances
@@CrackedTroyster my grandmother corrected me . he liked people to believe he was a hindi mystic. yes i know he was black. quite dark and thin. i was not quite 5 last time i was around him .Grandpa died then. i never saw the Man again.
I doubt it was for acceptance so much as just completing an image that sold well appropriate to the music he was creating. Race issues may suck and I don't doubt he dealt with numerous, but let's not forget to appreciate that this guy was bad-ass and incredible.
Yeah... Ok. He was bad-ass. And incredible. And he clearly was creating these alternate identities to get more opportunities that he wasn't getting as a bad-ass and incredible black musician, in a pretty oppressive America. Did you also know, before Korla Pundit, he was obtaining work, and even got into a 'whites only' musicians union by passing himself off as Mexican? Check it out (if you'd like) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korla_Pandit
The image worked but basically he and some of his family had light skin and at the time you could basically be anything BUT black and so this worked. I mean put yourself in his shoes. You’ve got to make up a persona to pass as non black and get in to. Some of these venues to further your talent. At the time the kitschy exotica was a no brained. You could pretty much bullshit your way through because I mean, it’s exotica, who would have the say so to even question ANYTHING about his authenticity. Why would you? And if you dare question him he might just start staring at you, and then it’s all over. Whatever the actual truth is doesn’t really matter because the only truth that matters here is that he is a gifted performer. He had “it”. And there wasn’t anyone who could coach that kind of a performer. So unusual that anything goes, and it did, and it was uniquely surreal.
@@andrewhigdon8346 Funny, how in America, you could be “anything but black”, yet blacks have been the progenitors of practically all the music genres America is of note for. Why do those the push this notion pigeonhole blacks into a category of perpetual victimization? If what you said were true, there’d be no blacks by 1964z
His popularity was HUGE. TV's in those day may have had poor picture quality but their sound was on FM frequencys and he sounded great. The stay at home moms loved this guy. As talented and as charming as a pro dickman gets.
During this time, Indians, "orientals, and anything foreign were considered exotic, mysterious. Television was just really coming into its own with the general populace and presenting the world that we did not know to us.
Augur Cybernaut he doesn't even look Indian, he has phony imposter written all over his face!!! if you want real Indian music listen to Ravi Shankar!! btw this dude looks like Derek Jeter lmfao
People didn’t realize he wasn’t an Indian but was it because everyone was ignorant and didn’t know where to find another Indian person to ask whether Korla pundit is wearing and saying corresponding you Indian customs? Because with a turban like that he could only have been a Sikh and Sikhs must be with beards since they mustn’t shave them. Plus none of his music sounds authentically Indian.
I want to give a like to this video, but as of the time I am writing this comment it has "666" likes and I do not wish to disturb that number. Therefore I write my like here!
This had white suburban women weak in the knees back in the day.A black musician and a white dancer pretending to be Indian very odd but they pulled it off.
This guy was either ahead of his time or on the cutting edge of his…. This is electrónic music… played directly on the organ before the advent of drum machines, samplers or synths. It’s incredible the way he creates percussion by hitting the keys.
Creating the Korla Pandit persona was a stroke of genius, and he was a good enough musician to pull it off for decades!
A little boast...Korla was a good friend. I hung out with him (and his son) for 10 years. I produced a concert and a CD for him as a tribute to the man I was first intrigued by as a young boy when seeing his image on the announcements my family received in the mail for his performances at a local revival theater.
I don't know if you are still alive but did you ever had a doubt about his race? Did yo ever knew he wasn't indian , but black
@@ankitnarayan31 He was friends with Paramahansa Yogananda--hard to believe that Yogananda wouldn't notice that Pandit wasn't Indian. Maybe Yogananda knew but agreed to keep it a secret.
Did his two children do well ?
A long loved friend. I knew him personally.
When did you find out he was black?
I think it would have been fascinating to have known this man! I'm courious if you knew about his true background?
was he gay?
I love the sound he creates when he's banging on the keys in a drum motion. It's just a really cool sound.
This is the guy in Ed Wood! I can't believe there were any exotica artists I had not yet discovered. And on KTLA, to boot! I'm speechless.
Yep! First time I saw the movie I saw the hands and said "Korla Pandit", making my wife, her brother and his wife say "WHO??" I wrote it down, they checked the credits at the end and there he was. When TV first came to my home town of Las Vegas NV, there were a lot of these "Snaders" to be seen. Korla was my mom's favorite. She noted that he never seemed to blink.
I like the percussive effects he gets from patting his hand on the lower keyboard. No automatic device to provide a tempo for Korla Pandit, no sir!
Who couldn't love this!
Imagine something as wonderful as this on mainstream televsion! Korla was a great musician and had an undeniably mystical quality.
+madamerotten
In the early days of television there was a push to be educational besides entertaining. People were fascinated with all things concerning exotic India at the time also. Lots of musical programming during the 50s and 60s.
Liberace had a show too if I remember.
He was a tease and a flirt -- MARVELOUS!!
In the US these do not exist. The French are masters at it.
From what I read, eventually, people were afraid that this guy was hypnotizing them so he was replaced by Liberace. Liberace ended up, stealing the staring into the camera a bit.
My mother adored korla pandit and his music alot i still have my mother's albums some of the albums are over fifty years old
The magic of UA-cam. 10 years ago, I'd never heard of Korla. Sorry I missed him since we were both living in the SF bay area
I'm in campiness overload! This guy was loved or mocked for his music and presentation in that era - much like Liberace, later. I vaguely remember hearing about him in the late 1950s. He wasn't taken at all seriously by other musicians, but certainly developed a big TV fan base - also like Liberace.
Turner:
I met Korla I believe around 1985 (I have notes). The CD was a 1985 release on "Sympathy for the Record Industry Records" and called "Exotika 2000" (which had 24 page booklet insert by me). It's entirely solo, B-3 organ recorded as a favor from a friend in a little back studio at A&M records in Hollywood. It features a live track of Miserlou from a performance at a concert in a Drive-In Movie Theater in Azusa, California called "Azusa Palooza". FYI, I also brought Korla into a band.
I gotta have that. Will begin searching NOW.
People have forgotten the sound quality of 1950s television sets. Programming like this was possible because of it.
My gramma had all of his albums
He is awesome I wonder why I've never heard or seen of him before I can understand why women were attracted to him and people were attracted to this performance truly talented.
There was a very very good in depth article about him in Vanity Fair magazine. After I read it I was intrigued and then saw a picture of him at the Magic Castle (L.a area). He was also in a movie late in his life. I bought a couple of his records in a thrift store by the Huntington Beach pier in Calif.
I believe his real name was Johnny Roland Redd and he was from I think Indiana. That’s if my memory serves me well. It was about 2005 when I read about him.
...and I"m sure a few guys were too
So cool! I'm hypnotized!
I just discovered Korla Pandit after hearing one of his songs on the Martini Lounge channel on AOL Radio Tuesday afternoon.
Thanks for posting this! I wish there were someone like Korla Pandit on tv today.
He reminds me of The Artist formerly known as Prince
I can't get over this!!!! I still frikkin' LOVE/ listen to it after it "came to me" last year ....hehehe
Wow this man is just plain awesome I am so happy I discovered his music I am really a big big fan of this man
Pandit was the organist on the second radio series of “Chandu the Magician” from 1948-50 on the Mutual-Don Lee Network. Trance Dance, in a slightly different arrangement, was the theme music for the program. Chan-DU, the MAGICIAN!
(sound effect of large Chinese gong)
That beat needs to be sampled, dope af
*NICE CURTAIN SHADOW DANCE BEHIND KORLA PANDIT.*
They gave him his own show because they thought he was from India and he was a black man ok color how awesome how he flipped the race card
He BRILLIANTLY flipped it
Well...its not cool how he abandoned my people and "passed" for something else. However, if a particular race wants a stereotype of Indian people , I guess they don't care how they get it!
@@JukuduB
He had no obligation to “your people”. How do you know he had not felt abandoned by them?
I guess he did what he had to do to survive. Those were the times. At least his talent was able to shine. Few people are what they seem in Hollywood anyway. Many of the men don’t have their real hair, many of the women have fake boobs. If he told a little lie about his origins, so what? He delivered the goods.
You have to look at this in historical context. He becomes famous at a time when Black people were still not allowed to use the same bathrooms as white people. But here’s a black man who manages to get himself on national television passing as another race which on a certain level must’ve been hilarious to him.
I bet Ray Manzarek of The Doors liked this guy...
For all we know a huge influence!
he was the MAN who in vented fake it to you make it !!!!!! i am down with it . i too have done this .
Like The King of Pop once said, "It doesn't matter if you are black or white". A very true statement in these troublesome times.🤔
These "times are troublesome" because that is what the TV tells you to believe
While their is truth to Michael's lyric, "Korla Pandit" was likely neither solely black nor white, but about as mixed-race as is possible, so calling him "black" would be a misnomer. I find it odd that there are those who insist on calling mixed-race people black, as did some of of them (Tiger Woods came up with a word to reflect his mixed ethnicity: "Cablinasian" is the word-blend he coined to identify who he is, a one-size-fits-all definition of his CAucasian, BLack, American INdian and ASIAN ancestries).
@Galantski a lot of mental gymnastics you did there😅.
Korla is so cool!
Simply sublime, thanks for posting!.
Before Prince
I truly enjoy this I know the persona is a fake one but I enjoy it still I applaud him and being able to pull this off and was able to fool everyone so he can make a living as a musician it is sad that he had to create this Persona to be able to get into the entertainment industry but at the same time I do love everything about the music his style and the story I would have truly loved to have met this individual
Say whatever you want about his color or where he is from, Korla Pandit was a phenomenal organ and piano player.
I want to know how it came about that in later years Korla Pandit ended up posing for a photo with The Cramps.
In 1950 I was four years old and my mom who was in show business as a dancer, got one of the first TVs ever, we were living in Chicago then. So the TV show couldn't have been in the 40s as someone suggested. In 1958 I was living in Santa Barbara, age 12 and I never saw this show on KTLA so I appreciate you educating me about this! It didn't occur to me he was black, and as many people pointed out his reasons for inventing himself are unknown. But understandable, especially In those days when blacks were not fully accepted like they are more nowadays.the dancer seems very Indian to me: does anyone know the dancers name? He's great. Sorry I missed the PBS special: any chance it will be shown on UA-cam? I also noticed the unusual way he plays the organ with his left hand: i've never seen it played this way,almost like the way one would play bass or other instrument - - I love it when musicians make up their own way Of creativity. Does anyone know if he was self-taught or not? Are there any other videos of his where he used dancers? This is the only one I noticed. He must've had a lot of TV shows, thank you so much!
You could try a google search for him. I believe I remember Wikipedia having something. I grew up in the San Fernando Valley area from 1957 on. Los Angeles had a lot of stations available back then, a lot more than other areas. I remember seeing Korla Pandit in brief feature preludes to a show. Also saw him a few times as a guest on different early variety type shows.
Korla's percussive technique to create a beat from the Hammond was utilized to great effect by Rob Collins on The Charlatans' single 'Weirdo'.
Someone has to make a bio pic of this man's life.
Nina Catanese just watched it on PBS. Awesome. Weird. One of a kind. Well, and Liberace.
Great idea. I’d totally watch it.
Wonderful! These shows are what led to me ultimately becoming a belly dancer! Does anyone know what year these shows were on originally? I'm thinking late 40's... remember early 50's seeing these. Help?
I understand from a prep school classmate a doc has been completed on this artist. My classmate shot footage for the doc. Google to search. If that fails, tell me so, and I'll ask friend for details. Anything for a bellydancer, that's my motto. At your service.
+Rita Ractliffe
1950s. Check out the Wikipedia page for him. Very informative.
A Mysteries of the Unknown episode brought me here today😁
you can hear so much classic roots reggae flavor in this. so lee scratch perry. the wailers could have easily one-dropped it.
Chris Gray , it’s latin rhumbas more here , infused into r n b thru 40s and 50s
@@markeddeckmusic7202 Noted!
Turner: Korla had two sons Shari and John. Shari passed away in recent times and John is tragically an alcoholic living on friends couches somewhere in Victoria BC.
toiseywoisey wow
I knew Shari and was shocked to hear of his passing. I was surprised to find very little info and video of him and his music (as he too was a musician in his own right) I only found 1 clip of Shari playing keyboard with Black Snake and none of him playing with The Muffs.
He was truly a progressive. He made a song for trans people way back then.
que video magico !!
such dope music . And great story behind it . But can I get premier ,doom or Pete Rock too sample this cats stuff
damn, so this is where it all started :P
Before Liberace!
Contemporaries
Great stuff!
He was Indian. He was one of my first friends, and my earliest musical influence. my Grand Father and Korla were old friends , and we visited him often at his performances
ouchcubic experimental music he was black.
He was a black man from St Louis, MO. Born John Roland Redd on September 16, 1921.
@@CrackedTroyster my grandmother corrected me . he liked people to believe he was a hindi mystic. yes i know he was black. quite dark and thin. i was not quite 5 last time i was around him .Grandpa died then. i never saw the Man again.
I have headphones on.....why is my right ear the only one that's happy?
What about this video would lead you to believe it would be in stereo? LOL
The "true" meaning of 'Camp'.
There's something about those eyes, that gaze into the camera. Disturbing and alluring at the same time.
It was an allure for all that some would not care to admit.
It's all in the right channel! Can you remix or somesuch?
His silence reminds me of Jason from The Good Place.
Every housewife and gay man watching television in the greater Los Angeles area must have been swooning!
Bravo!
I doubt it was for acceptance so much as just completing an image that sold well appropriate to the music he was creating. Race issues may suck and I don't doubt he dealt with numerous, but let's not forget to appreciate that this guy was bad-ass and incredible.
Yeah... Ok. He was bad-ass. And incredible. And he clearly was creating these alternate identities to get more opportunities that he wasn't getting as a bad-ass and incredible black musician, in a pretty oppressive America. Did you also know, before Korla Pundit, he was obtaining work, and even got into a 'whites only' musicians union by passing himself off as Mexican? Check it out (if you'd like) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korla_Pandit
The image worked but basically he and some of his family had light skin and at the time you could basically be anything BUT black and so this worked. I mean put yourself in his shoes. You’ve got to make up a persona to pass as non black and get in to. Some of these venues to further your talent. At the time the kitschy exotica was a no brained. You could pretty much bullshit your way through because I mean, it’s exotica, who would have the say so to even question ANYTHING about his authenticity. Why would you? And if you dare question him he might just start staring at you, and then it’s all over. Whatever the actual truth is doesn’t really matter because the only truth that matters here is that he is a gifted performer. He had “it”. And there wasn’t anyone who could coach that kind of a performer. So unusual that anything goes, and it did, and it was uniquely surreal.
I agree he created his own niche in a very overcrowded field.
@@andrewhigdon8346
Funny, how in America, you could be “anything but black”, yet blacks have been the progenitors of practically all the music genres America is of note for. Why do those the push this notion pigeonhole blacks into a category of perpetual victimization? If what you said were true, there’d be no blacks by 1964z
Who was the dancer??!
Barbara Framm i want to know too! i thought it was Korla at first lol
Onik Sahakian when quite young. I knew him well. Splendid and multi-talented chap he was, going on to bigger things not too long after.
does anyone know the name of the guy who is dancing?
Onik Sahakian in his youth. I knew him.
Black dude passing for Indian.....work it bruv.
wasn't it genius!!!??
His popularity was HUGE.
TV's in those day may have had poor picture quality but their sound was on FM frequencys and he sounded great.
The stay at home moms loved this guy.
As talented and as charming as a pro dickman gets.
During this time, Indians, "orientals, and anything foreign were considered exotic, mysterious. Television was just really coming into its own with the general populace and presenting the world that we did not know to us.
Charlie Chan was wonderful..
Augur Cybernaut he doesn't even look Indian, he has phony imposter written all over his face!!! if you want real Indian music listen to Ravi Shankar!! btw this dude looks like Derek Jeter lmfao
Life going a good direction if down were good.
@katymagnets now that's a bit of info i did not know....too bad he had to "pass" to get some recognition!!
Under your spell
ERRATUM: I erroneously stated that The Exotica 2000 was a 1985 release. It was a 1995 (I believe) release without checking.
Lisergic Bolero
Does his organ have some sort of 'drum' stop that allows him to play percussion on the lower manual (keyboard)?
So did no Indian person ever try to speak with him in a native tongue? Did he never come across an Indian person ..?
He wasn’t Indian.
@@mw7584 yeah I know that that’s why I’m wondering how he got away with it
There is a picture of "Korla" at home with that world world famous Indian Yogi (name escapes) and I'm sure he knew the deal
Dare I say it? Do I not hear a few intimations of what was to come in the 1960's? Iron Butterfly's "In-a-gadda-da-vida"??
Ray Manzarek.
Totally Iron Butterfly
Ickity ackity oop, eh-eh! Ziggity zaggity zoop, uh-uh! Oh oh pfft! Eh eh eh! Flippety flappety floop! It's yours.
People didn’t realize he wasn’t an Indian but was it because everyone was ignorant and didn’t know where to find another Indian person to ask whether Korla pundit is wearing and saying corresponding you Indian customs? Because with a turban like that he could only have been a Sikh and Sikhs must be with beards since they mustn’t shave them. Plus none of his music sounds authentically Indian.
No audio/sound!
swoon. what a hottie! :-p
I want to give a like to this video, but as of the time I am writing this comment it has "666" likes and I do not wish to disturb that number. Therefore I write my like here!
He looks slightly like Johnny Mathes.
No shri, Baba Ji!
This man puts Liberace to shame.
*A MALE DANCER¿? OMG!*
The first Michael Jackson 😂
the whole thing was a little too macho for my taste .
is that sal mineo dancing?!!! ....naw, i s'pose not......
Yall know he was not Indian right? He was black.
Dude looks like Don Lemon.
😂😂😂😂
He was creating pseudo-Indian music not even being from India lol. I wonder how he got to be informed about that to sell it so well.
He was friends with a Swami
He was a black man , he wasn’t Indian at all
He identified as Indian...so by todays standards...he really was...ha
Very talented, great artist, But, he kind of look like a female!
How?
And even if he did, that’s fine. Feminine looking guys are fucking cute.
This had white suburban women weak in the knees back in the day.A black musician and a white dancer pretending to be Indian very odd but they pulled it off.