Korla Pandit

(16 September 1921, St. Louis, Missouri — 2 October 1998, Petaluma, California) American pianist, organist, composer and TV music performer. After assuming a fictional French-Indian Korla Pandit persona in the late 1940s, Redd remained in character for the rest of his life, both on-stage and privately, keeping his true identity secret even from his children. Moving to California in the early 1940's, Redd initially took on the alias of Mexican Juan Rolando since black musicians faced widespread discrimination. Following his marriage Redd invented the Korla Pandit character. By 1948, Pandit had been regularly performing around Hollywood, and composed music for a popular "occult adventure" radio series, Chandu the Magician. In the 1990s, with a general resurgence of Exotica and the "Tiki-lounge" subculture, Korla Pandit briefly revived his career.