Kutle Khan

Kutle Khan, born on 10 January 1984 in Rajasthan, is a singer, composer and virtuoso multi-instrumentalist from the hereditary Manganiyar community of desert musicians. Trained from childhood in the Manganiyar tradition, he plays instruments including the khartal, morchang, bhapang and dholak while singing, and has become one of the most dynamic contemporary folk performers of Rajasthan. Moving fluidly between pure folk, Sufi and fusion, and collaborating widely on stage and screen, he has carried the Manganiyar tradition to national and international audiences.

Khan leads The Kutle Khan Project, blending traditional Rajasthani folk with contemporary and Sufi sound, and has performed in dozens of countries. He featured on Coke Studio @ MTV and MTV Unplugged, won the GiMA Best Folk Single award for Moomal, and provided vocals, morsing and khartal for the A.R. Rahman song Param Sundari. He performs both a pure-folk production, Sounds of Desert, and genre-crossing collaborations.

Khan is a singer and virtuoso multi-instrumentalist who moves fluidly between pure Rajasthani folk, Sufi and contemporary sound. He plays khartal, bhapang, morchang, dholak, sarangi and more, and writes and composes his own material, adding modern textures without losing the desert-folk base.