Bay Area based blues musician Aki Kumar is bringing his innovative “Bollywood Blues” style of music to The California in Santa Rosa twice in the next few months.
First, he’ll be the guest artist at Donny Mederos’ Monday Night Pro Jam on Monday, Jan. 5, which will serve to whet one’s whistle for his birthday bash happening on Saturday, March 14.
Born in Mumbai, India, Kumar (full name, Akarsha Kumar) was introduced to a multitude of musical styles at an early age, including rock and roll, Indian classical music, modern pop and Bollywood film scores. These early flavors continued to marinate in Kumar as he immigrated to America in the late ’90s with a more serious line of work in mind, computer science.
Landing in Oklahoma City in 1998, Kumar had an affinity for computers that soon drew him to Silicon Valley, where he attended San Jose State. The move proved fortuitous, as his love and passion for a wide spectrum of music naturally attracted him to the Bay Area blues scene, where he quickly became a fixture.
Speaking by email, Kumar says, “The Bay Area is where I got my musical start, [and] although it is the epicenter of hi-tech innovation, it also hosts exceptional musicians and a lively but somewhat underground blues scene.”
Hardcore blues fans can be a bit inflexible (although, that may be changing), so it was the underground blues scene where a unique artist like Kumar could flourish and hone his sound while still working a grind in the tech industry. This was until a common tale of the blues befell him, as he was laid off from his tech job in the early 2000s.
Yet, rather than return to a fickle line of work, one he had perhaps grown less fond of, Kumar leaned more into his music and joined a popular blues outfit, Tip of the Top, led by Bay Area-based blues guitarist Little Jonny Lawton, known for his work with Little Jonny and The Giants. Around the same time, Kumar hit on inspiration for his brand of music while humming along to a song from the traditional Hindi songbook, and he noted the similarities to a Jimmy Reed song.
He then decided to go all in on music. And so, under the tutelage of Grammy nominated blues harmonica player David Barrett—who has been a featured artist in Mark Hummel’s Blues Harmonica Blowouts alongside James Cotton, Charlie Musselwhite, Kim Wilson and Mark Hummel—Kumar honed his blues harp skills as well as his vocal and frontman chops. This gave local blues maven Bill Bowker cause to say, “I’ve always enjoyed Aki’s playing coupled with his sense of humor,” adding that the combo “makes for fun-filled time.”
Kumar continues to perform all over the area and beyond, as well as teaching harmonica, hosting shows and recording. It’s well worth noting that his 2021 album, Diruba, which was released in partnership with Sony music, has garnered well more than a million downloads in India alone.
Although an artist who has earned fans worldwide and the respect of his peers might perhaps be better served living in a more music rich environment than San Jose, Kumar makes an interesting point, noting that perhaps the more progressive and accepting people of the Bay Area are a great core group of listeners. He says, “It certainly doesn’t hurt that the audience here is very diverse and accepting of such cultural innovations as ‘Bollywood Blues.’”
Locally speaking, Kumar says, “I’ve lived in the Bay Area for well over two decades, but it is only in the past five years that I feel like I have broken into the North Bay, and especially Sonoma County.” It’s been a warm welcome, as he notes that “audiences in Sonoma have been ‘hip’ to the blues for a long, long time, culturally and generationally. They seem to love the fresh spin I offer on it.”
When asked what fans can expect at the Pro Jam, he adds, “I always enjoy performing with Donny Mederos’ band and make it a point to never send them material ahead of time, which keeps things interesting for us on stage.”
For more information, check out akikumar.com.
