Korla Pandit : The Godfather of Exotica

This is my $n$-th blog ;). This time, the motivation to start this blog was generously provided by the musician Korla Pandit. Often, I share my thoughts on music with different groups of friends over email. Given so much music and so many artists to talk about, I thought a blog would be more convenient.

Korla Pandit, (1921-1998) is a musician of Indian origin (or so it appears to be). There are two different theories about his birth. The first proposes that he was born John R. Redd, to Dosia(?) and Rev. Ernest Redd, in Columbia, Missourie, USA. The other says that he is the Son of a french opera singer and Hindu Brahmin born in New Delhi, India, and obtained his music education from Chicago. Looks like the first one is true, as per the extensive biography provided here.

The musical arrangement consists of solo performance of an Organ and a Piano, which he keeps alternating between segments of a song, sometimes simultaneously playing both of them. However, we cannot miss noticing the way he emulates drums from the piano and organ! I have not seen any other performer doing this till date! He can produce a variety of drum sounds from his instruments, ranging from the melodic drum patterns of a Hangdrum to the percussion sounds of instruments like Xylophone, or even to the sounds of a Timpani or Jazz Toms (when played softly, of course).

His musical pieces consist of a central theme (motif) and a sequence of amazing variations around the theme.There are several intelligent and subtle chord harmonizations (sure must need a heavy theoretical understanding of music), and interesting key changes all through, which makes each variation unique and interesting. He earned the name "Godfather of Exotica", since western music classifies the standard scales of Asian (Indian, Chinese, Middle eastern) music as exotic.

Intrestingly, Korla Pandit was one of the first persons to make music videos for television. Not many people seem to know him given the rate at which we ingest music videos these days (well, I don't complain, I am one of them!). He recently made his entrance on to Youtube (Youtube FTW!), and I am sure he will be on top of the charts very soon! He could very well be called the "Father of Music Videos" too :). Many comments on youtube tend to suggest that this was one of the first programmes they have every watched on television!

His videos have a very characteristic style. He just stares into the camera all the time oblivious to his fingers that keep producing some of the most amazing music I have ever heard. Most of his music has an Indo-persian and Middle-eastern feel to it. Of course, we can say that a lot of Carnatic scales fit well in describing his music too, I need to sit and figure out more about what scales he used (if I can!). I will update this post accordingly.

Here is a list of must-listen-before-one-dies songs (I would say all his songs!). Also, I suggest listening to the songs in the order given below for best experience ;).

• Kumar
  
• Miserlou (Greek rebetiko song, however, people on Youtube fight if it is of Greek/Turkish/Arabic origin).
  
• Trance Dance
  
• Song of India
• La Comparsita