Karsh Kale (pronounced Kursh Kah-lay, कर्ष काळे in Marathi; born 1 November 1974) is an Indian-American musician born in England. Known primarily for his experimental tabla playing within electronic music contexts, Kale's career has seen him take on roles of an Indian classical tabla player, singer, songwriter, film and TV score composer and DJ. He is considered a pioneer of the Asian Underground genre, bringing elements of Indian music to Electronica and Dance. His career highlights include touring as the supergroup Tabla Beat Science (with Ustad Zakir Hussain, Bill Laswell, Ustad Sultan Khan et al.), 6 solo studio records from 1999 (several other record appearances), the seminal 2005 album "Breathing Under Water" with Anoushka Shankar, scoring and production for the 2019 Bollywood smash hit "Gully Boy", curating 6 acclaimed songs for the Indian Coke Studio in 2012, amongst many others. Kale is also popular for his eclectic collaborations with Sting, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Ustad Sultan Khan, U2, Norah Jones, Yoko Ono, and Herbie Hancock to name a few.
Biography
Early life
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.
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".
Tabla Beat Science
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, and the group embarked on a tour, of which one of the shows was later released on DVD.
1999–2011
While a Music Production and Performance student at New York University, Kale began playing in bands and working as a session musician. 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.
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. Realize, often considered as a major milestone in what Kale called "Asian Massive", 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".
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. 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.
2012–2021
Kale made two appearances in the Indian cult classic television show The Dewarists. In the first one in Season 1 (2011), he produced a Tabla-Electronica track in his signature style, called "Sacred Science", with Baiju Dharmajan, and Njelarathu Harigovindan; and a folk-rock ballad in Season 2 (2012), called "The Minstrel's Tale", with his long time collaborator Papon, and UK-Based Carl Barat of the Libertines.
In 2012, Kale was invited to produce 6 songs for the second season of MTV India's music incubation project, Coke Studio @ MTV. This episode met both popular and critical acclaim, especially for Kale's take on "Kajar Bin Kaare", a classic from his Tabla Beat Science times, done as a tribute to Ustad Sultan Khan.
Kale also hosted the Season 2 of MTV Soundtrippin', alongside Nucleya in 2013 for MTV India.
In January 2016, Kale released his fifth solo studio album, "Up" featuring collaborations from his group "Karsh Kale Collectiv". The album features guitarist Blackstratblues/Warren Mendonsa, Kale's long time collaborator flautist Pandit Ajay Prasanna, and vocalists Papon, Benny Dayal, and Monali Thakur, amongst a host of other musicians. Following the release, Kale also did an "Up Live Tour" to promote the album in India across several concerts, featuring visual effects by The Wolves.