Karsh Kale

Born as Utkarsh Kale on 1 November 1974 to Indian Marathi speaking immigrants in West Bromwich, UK, Kale was raised in Stony Brook, New York after his parents relocated in 1977.[2]

Kale took an interest in drums and eventually became a tabla player. His father introduced him to a broad range of music, which included traditional Indian music, classical, rock, and even early hip-hop. From this broad range of influences, Kale, who was self-taught, developed his own style, which eventually led to his "electric tabla".[3]

In 2000, Bill Laswell founded Tabla Beat Science, inviting Kale, along with Zakir Hussain, Talvin Singh, Trilok Gurtu and Sultan Khan. Together, the group released Tala Matrix that year. The album is considered to be one of the most influential Asian Fusion albums to date,[2] and the group embarked on a tour, of which one of the shows was later released on DVD.[3]

While a Music Production and Performance student at New York University, Kale began playing in bands and working as a session musician.[3] In 1999, Kale began work on his first EP, Classical Science Fiction from India and began hosting bi-weekly "Futureproof" events, which consisted of DJ and electric tabla sets.[4]

These events attracted the attention of San Francisco label Six Degrees Records. Soon after, Kale became the first Indo-American to be signed to a solo recording contract in the United States, a move which was followed by Kale's first full-length album, Realize, in 2001.[3][5] Realize, often considered as a major milestone in what Kale called "Asian Massive",[6] was followed with 2002's Asian Massive Tour, which also featured Midival Punditz and Cheb i Sabbah, and 2003's Liberation. Zakir Hussain also was featured in the album and in the major attraction of the album "Milan".[3]

Kale's third album, 2006's Broken English, was predominantly set to English lyrics, a shift from his previous albums. His follow-up Breathing Under Water, released in 2007, was the result of a two-year collaboration with sitar instrumentalist Anoushka Shankar.[3] In 2011, Kale released Cinema, which is influenced by Kale's experiences in composing for Bollywood. He also won GIMA Awards best fusion album for the same, beating A.R.Rahman.

Solo albums

• Realize (2001)
• Redesign: Realize Remixed (2002)
• Liberation (2003)
• Broken English (2006)
• Breathing Under Water (with Anoushka Shankar) (2007)
• Cinema (2010)
• UP (2016)

• Tala Matrix (2000)
• Live at Stern Grove Palm Pictures (2003)
• Talaman Soundclash, Live at the Filmore (2004)

• Bright Like This (1999)
• Classical Science Fiction from India (2000)
• Play (1999)
• Pause (1999)
• Back Seat Lavni (1999)
• Distance Remixes (2000)
• Manifest Remixes EP (2006)
• Beautiful Remixes EP (2007)
• Funkcronomic (2016) (with Bill Laswell and Bernie Worrell)

With Dave Douglas

• Freak In (RCA, 2003)

• Karthik Calling Karthik (2010)
• Gully Boy (2019)
• Choked (2020)

• "Distance" (2001)
• "We All Fall" (2014)
• "Up" (2016)