Korla Pandit

Korla Pandit (September 16, 1921 – October 2, 1998), born John Roland Redd, was a musician, composer, pianist, organist and television pioneer of national notability. Known as the Godfather of Exotica, he claimed to be French-Indian and from New Delhi, but he was actually one of the first African-American television stars.Raised in small towns in Missouri, Redd created a decades-long career from the 1950s through the 1990s in Los Angeles passing as a French-Indian musician known as Korla Pandit. In the 1940s, Redd had earlier performed in Los Angeles under the stage name of Juan Rolando, in order to be admitted to the whites-only musicians union and get more work. While many African-American colleagues knew of his impersonation as Pandit, no one revealed it during his lifetime.

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