Jai Uttal
American singer-songwriter
Jai Uttal (born Douglas Uttal, June 12, 1951) is an American musician known for kirtan and world music, blending Indian devotional music with American rock, jazz, and folk. His 2002 album Mondo Rama, recorded with his band the Pagan Love Orchestra, was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best New Age Album at the 45th Annual Grammy Awards.
Early life
Uttal grew up in New York City, the son of record label executive Larry Uttal. He began studying classical piano at the age of seven and later learned to play banjo, harmonica, and guitar. He first heard Indian music at 17, and at 19 moved to Northern California to study sarod under Ali Akbar Khan. He subsequently made regular trips to India, living among the Bauls of Bengal and singing kirtan at the temple of his guru Neem Karoli Baba; he adopted kirtan, the bhakti practice of chanting the names of God, as his devotional path.
Career
Uttal released his debut album, Footprints, on Triloka Records in 1990; it featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry and Indian vocalist Lakshmi Shankar. He followed with Monkey (1992) and Beggars and Saints (1994). Shiva Station (1997) was mixed by producer Bill Laswell. A compilation of his Triloka recordings, Spirit Room, appeared in 2000.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Jai Uttal” is american singer-songwriter. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Uttal, American and singer-songwriter, not as a finished interpretation.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4479007. VIAF identifies the subject as 92106969. The Library of Congress control number is no98120704. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1951, 2002, 1990 and 1992.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jai Uttal” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.