Known fondly as the “Trumpet King” of India, Kishore Sodha has had his name etched in the annals of Indian film and independent music. He is probably one of those very few artists who has had a long career of four decades as a solo trumpet player and still continues to awe his audience.

Having started his career as an 18-year-old boy with the legendary Indian singer Kishore Kumar, Kishore Sodha was soon spotted by the maverick and extremely popular music director RD Burman and joined his music group. In 1978, 18-year-old Sodha had accompanied Kishore Kumar on one of his live shows. RD Burman heard him and was curious to know who he was. Kishore Kumar told Burman, “Kishore Sodha is our swarleen artiste Rajinder Singh’s brother.” Sodha didn’t expect Burman to remember him, however, four years later he was called to be part of Burman’s band.

When Sodha first entered the playback scene for Burman, he was thrilled and also apprehensive as Burman was known for his Jazz and Blues influences while Sodha was more attuned to the traditional musicality of Kalyanji- Anandji and Lakshmikant-Pyarelal. Describing it as a “refreshingly new experience,” Sodha says, “I first worked with Pancham in Shalimar, which took 30 days of background recording. Shaan and Sanam Teri Kasam followed where the songs offered more trumpet segments that got increasingly noticed.” ‘O Maria’ and ‘Sagar Kinaare’ from Saagar and ‘Bachna Ae Haseeno’ from Hum Kisise Kum Nahin have had his audience in raptures at live shows.

Working with Burman for two decades was gratifying for Sodha as Pancham had an eye and ear for rare instruments and sounds. “Not just new instruments, Pancham blended everyday sounds such as of rubbing combs and scissors, or tapping a glass and spoon into his compositions. In the case of the trumpet, Pancham wanted a range of trumpets, and would appreciate the high notes I played, like I did in The Burning Train.” Kishore Sodha has played in over 6,000 songs, apart from numerous background scores, jingles and live performances.

Sodha was born in Ujjain and moved to Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh as a five year old boy. In 1975 he came to Mumbai to join his brother, Rajinder, who was already working in films. Sodha’s father, Rai Singh, was a bandmaster and led an orchestra of 150 musicians during the 1940s. Singh’s three sons were into music with Rajinder taking to the swarleen flute, and Raj the soprano sax and violin. Kishore’s first brush with the trumpet happened when he was five years old when his brother Rajinder had accompanied Lata Mangeshkar on a tour to the US and had bought a small trumpet for him. The rest, as they say, is history.

The first song that Kishore played on the trumpet was “Rote Hue Aate Hain Sab’ in Muqaddar Ka Sikandar for the popular Kishore Kumar track. Though very soon R.D.Burman’s “Jeete Hai Shaan Se” song got him noticed pretty well amidst the connoisseurs of music. Later he played on cult films like The Burning Train, Shalimar, Shaan, Sanam Teri Kasam etc. More and more music composers started composing songs to suit his unique style of trumpet playing, giving life to legendary songs like O Maria, Saagar Kinare, Bachna Ae Haseeno to name a few.

Apart from R D Burman Kishore holds the credit for having worked with other leading list of composers like Kalyanji-Anandji, Bappi Lahiri, Anu Malik, Laxmikant Pyarelal, Anand Milind and contemporary music composers like Salim-Suleiman, Vishal-Shekhar, Sajid-Wajid, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and A R Rahman and countless stage shows with legends like Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Sharukh Khan, Salman Khan, Amir Khan etc. He has also worked with numerous independent artists and bands, some of them being Ska Vengers, The Bar Tenders and Fanculos. His works have included a variety of popular tracks from Rishi Kapoor’s ‘Hum kisise kum naheen’ to Ranbir Kapoor’s ‘Badtameez dil’. Besides background scores, the widely travelled Sodha also brings to life Indian classical music (ragas) with his trumpet.