Jai Uttal: The American Musician Who Carried Maharajji's Kirtan to the West

In yoga studios and kirtan gatherings across the West, chanting names like Ram, Krishna, and Hanuman often carries an American warmth alongside its Indian roots. Much of that sound can be traced to Jai Uttal, an American singer and multi-instrumentalist who, as devotees tell it, found his life’s direction after meeting Neem Karoli Baba — Maharajji — in India in 1971. He arrived as a young seeker in love with Indian music, and what he carried home was a practice: kirtan, the bhakti yoga of singing God’s names together until the heart opens. By his own account, it has stayed at the centre of his music and teaching for over five decades.

At a Glance

Born	1951, New York City, USA
Known as	American kirtan singer, composer, multi-instrumentalist
Training	Piano as a child; sarod and Indian singing under Ali Akbar Khan
Maharajji connection	Met Neem Karoli Baba in India in 1971, per his own account
Path	Bhakti yoga, chiefly through kirtan
Band	The Pagan Love Orchestra
Recognition	Grammy nomination, Mondo Rama, Best New Age Album, 2003
Later work	Leading kirtan worldwide; teaching through Kirtan Camp

Before India: A New York Boy Raised on Music

Jai Uttal grew up in Manhattan, in a home full of music. His father, Larry Uttal, was a record executive, so 1950s and 1960s pop music filled the house. He began piano at seven, later learning banjo, harmonica, and guitar. As a teenager, hearing Indian classical music first felt strangely like home to him. At around eighteen or nineteen, he moved to California to study with sarod master Ali Akbar Khan, learning sarod and traditional Indian singing. Khan insisted his students study voice too: all music comes from the voice. The shy instrumentalist was slowly finding a singing voice. He had sung a little kirtan since his mid-teens, but did not yet lead it.

Meeting Maharajji: Daily Darshan, and Kirtan All Around

According to Uttal’s own account, he travelled to India in 1971. He found himself spending time with Maharajji, and, in his words, his inner life completely changed. One detail should not be overstated. In an interview, Uttal explained that Western visitors at that time did not live inside Maharajji’s ashram. They stayed nearby and came every day to see him. The background to every visit was kirtan, and when Maharajji grew tired of the Westerners sitting before him, he would send them to a corner of the ashram to sing kirtan themselves. Sources give no precise day or single ashram location for his first meeting, and this draft invents none. The consistent report is the year, 1971, and the effect: bhakti yoga, through kirtan and service, became the centre of his life. He calls kirtan his “soul support system.” He is therefore counted among Maharajji’s Western devotees, not as a long-term resident, but as one whose path was set by daily visits.

Devotion That Looked Like Music

For Uttal, devotion never became separate from music. He returned to India again and again, spending time with Hindu and Buddhist practitioners and living for a time among the Bauls, the wandering musician-saints of Bengal. As devotees tell it, he learned from them by listening and singing alongside them. Back in America, that shaped everything he made: Indian melody and chant woven with the rock, jazz, reggae, folk, and Brazilian sounds he had grown up with. The result was not a lecture about bhakti, but an invitation — join in, sing the response, and let the chant do its work. That open spirit still marks his kirtan gatherings.

Music and Legacy: From Footprints to Kirtan Camp

Uttal’s recording career began with Footprints (1990), made with jazz trumpeter Don Cherry and Indian vocalist Lakshmi Shankar. It was followed by Monkey (1992), Beggars and Saints (1994), a tribute to the Bauls, and Shiva Station (1997), mixed by producer Bill Laswell. With the Pagan Love Orchestra, he became known for East-meets-West world music. In 2002, they released Mondo Rama, nominated for the Grammy Award for Best New Age Album in 2003. From 2003, his work turned more fully toward kirtan, with Sounds True recordings including Kirtan! The Art and Practice of Ecstatic Chant and Dial M for Mantra, and Pranayama with his wife, yoga teacher Nubia Teixeira. He later made Kirtan Kids (2011), and per his own website has released over twenty albums, including a recent Hanuman Chalisa rendition with his son Ezra. For close to fifty years he has led kirtan worldwide. Through Kirtan Camp, in person and online, he teaches voice, harmonium, and leading chant: anyone can sing, and singing together is itself prayer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Jai Uttal?

An American kirtan singer and multi-instrumentalist, born in New York City in 1951, who helped bring kirtan to the West.

When did Jai Uttal meet Neem Karoli Baba?

According to his own account, in India in 1971. No exact date or single ashram location is recorded for that first meeting.

Was Jai Uttal a resident disciple living in Maharajji’s ashram?

No, not in that sense. By his own account, Western visitors then stayed nearby and visited Maharajji daily.

What is kirtan, and why did it matter so much to him?

Call-and-response chanting of God’s names in bhakti yoga. For Uttal it became his practice and musical language — his “soul support system.”

Which Jai Uttal albums should a newcomer start with?

Try Footprints (1990), Mondo Rama (2002), and Kirtan! The Art and Practice of Ecstatic Chant for pure, participatory kirtan.

Does Jai Uttal still teach kirtan today?

Yes. Per his own website, he leads kirtans worldwide and teaches through Kirtan Camp, including a yearlong online programme in voice, harmonium, and leading chant.

Disclaimer

This article is a devotee-run guide, not an official ashram or trust publication. The accounts shared here are presented as devotee accounts, as told by devotees and by Jai Uttal himself, not as verified history. Where sources are thin or disagree, this article says so rather than filling in the gaps.

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Jai Uttal: The American Musician Who Carried Maharajji’s Kirtan to the West