Juan Rolando

Juan Rolando was a moniker used for several years by African-American organist, pianist and pioneering television performer John Roland Redd (16 September 1921, St. Louis, Missouri — 2 October 1998, Petaluma, California). He was born in a family of a Baptist pastor, one of seven children, and began playing piano at three, showcasing tremendous natural ability. In 1938, soon after graduating from high school, Redd got his first job at the Central Broadcasting Company in Des Moines, Iowa, but couldn't advance his career facing a commonplace racial discrimination against African-Americans. Since his mother had mixed Anglo and African origins, John had relatively light complexion and straight hair; thus, he decided to pass as Mexican and invented a new artistic alias, "Juan Rolando". In the early 1940s, John moved from the Midwest to California, where two of his older sisters, both singers, had already settled. As Juan Rolando, he was soon hired at KMPC radio station in Los Angeles as an organ accompanist. He was able to join the Musicians' Union, which didn't accept African-American members at the time, thus gaining access to various studio and concert gigs. Juan Rolando had a brief career in the aspiring "cocktail lounge" genre and released several 10" shellac records on a short-lived Californian label Cocktail Hour (2); however, Rolando/Redd wasn't able to achieve a major breakthrough. In the late 1940s, now in collaboration with his wife, John Redd invented yet another artistic disguise, this time posing as a mysterious French-Indian musician Korla Pandit. In June 1948, he was commissioned as "Korla Pandit" to create and perform music for a relaunch of a fantasy horror radio drama Chandu the Magician. In February 1949, Pandit/Redd debuted a solo television program on KTLA, Korla Pandit's Adventures In Music, which became an instant hit and launched a prolific career.