Biography
British singer/songwriter Paul Korda entered the music world with deep family roots in performance. His father, Tibor Kunstler, began as a classically trained violinist and singer after studies in Budapest and at La Scala before switching to saxophone and joining Coleman Hawkins for a tour of Eastern Europe. His mother sang on stage and in films while also performing with ensembles fronted by Stephan Grapelli and Joe Loss. Two aunts plus his maternal grandmother, Florence Wright Lenner, likewise gained recognition as vocalists.
Korda gravitated toward the mid-'60s folk revival in London's Soho district, where he encountered emerging talents including Sandy Denny, Al Stewart, Cat Stevens, Noel Redding, and Reg Dwight (aka Elton John) and simultaneously pursued photography studies. At Harrow Technical College he launched a folk club, yet his listening habits extended to rock & roll. Through his connection with Noel Redding he met Jimi Hendrix and relinquished his own opening slot at Mayfair's 7½ Club to the American guitarist early in the latter's rise.
During the 1960s Korda issued his own single, "Come on Home," on EMI's Columbia Records imprint and secured a songwriting contract with Andrew Loog Oldham's Immediate Music publishing firm, supplying "The Time Has Come" to P.P. Arnold for a British hit. Throughout the late '60s he balanced roles as an EMI producer with his own performing and recording activities, also appearing in the original London production of Hair, where he delivered "Electric Blues" alongside future British pop star Marsha Hunt.
Even while active in theater and rock, Korda upheld the socially conscious outlook he had formed as a mid-'60s folkie and emerged as a leading protest singer, notably addressing the treatment of England's pension recipients. His musical contacts proved strong enough that his 1971 debut album, Passing Stranger, featured support from Chris Spedding and Madeline Bell. Shortly after release, however, the album was withdrawn because of an ultimately unfounded claim by Immediate that it still held him under contract; three years passed before Korda prevailed in that dispute.
Once free to record independently, Korda faced an industry that had shifted beyond the 1960s. Roger Daltrey of the Who, preparing his first solo album and still reliant on outside material, enlisted three songs from Korda for Ride a Rock Horse, which reached the Top 20 on both sides of the Atlantic. Korda also returned to live performance, enjoying a successful week-long run at New York's The Other End with Daryl Pettiford following a favorable Variety notice. He then moved to Los Angeles, resumed recording on the Janus label, and scored a major broadcast hit with "Manhattan" from the album Dancing in the Aisles. After the label folded soon afterward, Korda achieved his principal successes of the next several years as a songwriter placing material in television and other outlets.
In the 1980s he took a small role in the film This Is Spinal Tap and contributed to albums by Alan Holdsworth and Jack Bruce. He later renewed his focus on social concerns, now centered on urban America, while continuing to write songs and completing the musical Coming To, which explores psychic life in the post-9/11 era. He also maintained occasional acting work, appearing as the Governor's dignitary in Pirates of the Caribbean.
Korda gravitated toward the mid-'60s folk revival in London's Soho district, where he encountered emerging talents including Sandy Denny, Al Stewart, Cat Stevens, Noel Redding, and Reg Dwight (aka Elton John) and simultaneously pursued photography studies. At Harrow Technical College he launched a folk club, yet his listening habits extended to rock & roll. Through his connection with Noel Redding he met Jimi Hendrix and relinquished his own opening slot at Mayfair's 7½ Club to the American guitarist early in the latter's rise.
During the 1960s Korda issued his own single, "Come on Home," on EMI's Columbia Records imprint and secured a songwriting contract with Andrew Loog Oldham's Immediate Music publishing firm, supplying "The Time Has Come" to P.P. Arnold for a British hit. Throughout the late '60s he balanced roles as an EMI producer with his own performing and recording activities, also appearing in the original London production of Hair, where he delivered "Electric Blues" alongside future British pop star Marsha Hunt.
Even while active in theater and rock, Korda upheld the socially conscious outlook he had formed as a mid-'60s folkie and emerged as a leading protest singer, notably addressing the treatment of England's pension recipients. His musical contacts proved strong enough that his 1971 debut album, Passing Stranger, featured support from Chris Spedding and Madeline Bell. Shortly after release, however, the album was withdrawn because of an ultimately unfounded claim by Immediate that it still held him under contract; three years passed before Korda prevailed in that dispute.
Once free to record independently, Korda faced an industry that had shifted beyond the 1960s. Roger Daltrey of the Who, preparing his first solo album and still reliant on outside material, enlisted three songs from Korda for Ride a Rock Horse, which reached the Top 20 on both sides of the Atlantic. Korda also returned to live performance, enjoying a successful week-long run at New York's The Other End with Daryl Pettiford following a favorable Variety notice. He then moved to Los Angeles, resumed recording on the Janus label, and scored a major broadcast hit with "Manhattan" from the album Dancing in the Aisles. After the label folded soon afterward, Korda achieved his principal successes of the next several years as a songwriter placing material in television and other outlets.
In the 1980s he took a small role in the film This Is Spinal Tap and contributed to albums by Alan Holdsworth and Jack Bruce. He later renewed his focus on social concerns, now centered on urban America, while continuing to write songs and completing the musical Coming To, which explores psychic life in the post-9/11 era. He also maintained occasional acting work, appearing as the Governor's dignitary in Pirates of the Caribbean.
Albums
