Krishna Das

American singer Krishna Das, born Jeffrey Kagel, has gained wide acclaim for merging Hindu devotional traditions with modern Western sounds while popularizing the ancient kirtan chant worldwide. Born on Long Island, he established Triloka Records and first encountered Indian spirituality during his early twenties after immersing himself in jazz, blues, and rock & roll. While employed as a school bus driver, he accepted an invitation from friends in 1968 to meet spiritual teacher Ram Dass, driving six hours through snow to reach New Hampshire. Though the meeting lasted only a few hours, it redirected his entire path. Two years afterward he journeyed to northern India and studied for two years with Guru Mahara-ji, also known as Neem Karoli Baba. He came back to the United States in 1972 and committed himself fully to Bhakti yoga, the Yoga of Devotion, along with the practice of kirtan chanting.

In 1990 Das launched Triloka Records, which quickly emerged as a prominent outlet for world music by artists including Jai Uttal, Ali Akbar Khan, and jazz great Jackie McLean. His first record, One Track Heart, appeared in 1996 and presented refreshed versions of Bhakti yoga chants. Pilgrim Heart followed in 1998 and included a guest vocal from Sting, marking the start of numerous collaborations with pop performers. Throughout the next ten years he issued a steady stream of releases, among them the Rick Rubin-produced Breath of the Heart and Door of Faith, as well as the 2007 collaborative project Gathering in the Light recorded with composer and overtone singer Baird Hersey and the choir Prana. Live albums also appeared regularly, one of which, the 2012 release Live Ananda, received a Grammy nomination. Kirtan Wallah, issued in 2014, showed him incorporating his American rock background through an uncommon stylistic blend. After the 2015 retrospective Laughing at the Moon: A Collection of Classics 1996-2005, he delivered his fifteenth studio album, Trust in the Heart, in October 2017.