Born and raised in the Canadian prairies (Brandon, Manitoba) to American citizens with Eastern European roots, Karl has called Paris his home for nearly twenty five years. As one of the most in-demand drummers in France, Karl completes his musical identity with his songwriting, which has aptly been described as “an enchanting crossroads between cosmic pop and hypnotic jazz”.

When Karl was four years old he started drumming on pots and pans. After a few years of classical snare drum lessons he made his way to the drum set, playing along to ZZ Top cassettes. As a teenager he was taken under the wing of older, local jazz musicians and was gigging several nights per week – mainly in jazz groups but his first professional recording was with a reggae / world music band called Global Village Trucking Company.

In 1993, at the age of seventeen, Karl moved to Montreal where he obtained a Bachelor of Music degree with High Distinction in Jazz Performance from McGill University. In the middle of his degree, Karl spent a semester at the University of New Orleans where he, ironically, took a break from music and focused on the arts and science elective courses required for his degree. After soaking in the sounds of New Orleans, Karl returned to Montreal with newfound enthusiasm to complete his studies.

Receiving funding from the Canada and Quebec Arts councils in 1999, Karl spent a year in Brooklyn where he studied with drummer Tom Rainey. Love brought him to Paris a year later.

The Pull, Karl's latest recording was released in January 2025. It is his third album featuring French vocalist Cynthia Abraham - a collaboration which began in 2017. Like his other releases, it is entirely comprised of his own original music, though unlike his previous recordings, Karl programmed all of the drum tracks, primarily using samples of 1990s hip hop drum sounds and painstakingly crafting each track to resemble his own playing.

Karl has previously released seven other albums and an EP under his own name: Liberating Vines (2004) was awarded an Opus award for “Jazz / World Music Album of the Year”; Thinking in Colours (2009) includes his composition “House of 100 Faces” that earned him a CBC Etoiles Galaxie prize from the Montreal Jazz Festival for “Most Original Composition”; Streaming (2010) debuted his eight-year collaboration with Canadian vocalist Sienna Dahlen; The Halfway Tree (2012) was awarded a SACEM grant for self-produced albums and received a CHOC rating in Jazz Magazine; Midseason (2016) with music and lyrics entirely penned by Karl, this album features vocalist Denzal Sinclaire in addition to Sienna; On The Brighter Side (2018) classified as “ethereal indie jazz”, marked the beginning of his collaboration with Cynthia Abraham. The EP, Featherweight - Sofie Sorman Sings the Music of Karl Jannuska (2021), was produced by Karl and features Sofie Sörman, a Paris-based vocalist that Karl has been performing with for over twenty years. Duality (2022) is one of Karl's most elaborate productions - the fruit of a productive covid-confinement period.

Since 2016 Karl’s albums have been released on the Shed Music label – a collective that Karl co-founded with Christophe Panzani, Pierre Perchaud and Tony Paeleman - members of his close-knit musical family who also form the band, The Watershed.

As a drummer, Karl can be heard on over 100 records and he has performed concerts in more than 30 countries sharing the stage and/or recording with musicians including Lee Konitz, Brad Mehldau, Lionel Loueke, Hugh Coltman, Mark Turner, Norma Winstone, Christine and Ingrid Jensen, Enrico Pieranunzi, Stephane Belmondo, Ben Monder, Emile Parisien, Leif Vollebekk, Randy Brecker, Joel Miller, Ben Wendel, Laurent Coq, François Bourassa, Kevin Hays, David Linx, Peter Bernstein, Brad Turner, Franck Amsallem, Sheila Jordan, Seamus Blake, Chuck Israels, Sam Yahel, Michel Donato, and Kurt Rosenwinkel.

Karl can also be heard as a member of the bands of Olivier Bogé, Bruno Schorp, Meta, Matthis Pascaud, Nicolas Moreaux, Michael Felberbaum, Thomas Savy, Cobra Fantastic, Pierre de Bethmann and Christophe Dal Sasso with whom he won a 2020 Victoires du Jazz award for “Group of the Year”.

When he is not performing music Karl enjoys teaching and has shared his knowledge at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, the Centre des Musiques Didier Lockwood, the Conservatoire National de Belgique and he has been a member of the teaching faculty at the French festivals Jazz in Marciac and Jazz à Vienne.

Since 2022, alongside Belgian saxophonist Toine Thys, Karl has made yearly trips to Nairobi, Kenya where the pair have guided a brass band of roughly 25 students at the Ghetto Classics school in the heart of Korogocho, the cities largest slum. In addition to teaching the students, they have recorded two videos and will tour Kenya with the group in November 2024.

Karl has been named Artist in Residence for the 2024 - 2025 season at the Conservatoire de Pontault Combault where he is arranging his original music for several of the school's ensembles including two orchestras, three choirs, a percussion ensemble, an ancient music ensemble, a string quartet, several beginner ensembles and roughly ten "musique actuelle" groups.