{"id":1113,"date":"2016-08-25T01:55:03","date_gmt":"2016-08-25T01:55:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/?p=1113"},"modified":"2018-07-02T02:05:26","modified_gmt":"2018-07-02T02:05:26","slug":"kqed-blowin-the-blues-bollywood-style-with-aki-kumar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/kqed-blowin-the-blues-bollywood-style-with-aki-kumar\/","title":{"rendered":"KQED: Blowin&#8217; the Blues Bollywood-Style with Aki Kumar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe width=\"853\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pnPaSmPxgtw\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\nMeet San Jose musician Aki Kumar today, and he&#8217;ll proudly introduce himself as \u201cThe Only Bombay Blues Man.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But there was a time when Kumar, while making a name for himself on the Bay Area blues scene more than a decade ago, would intentionally downplay his Indian heritage. He wasn&#8217;t so forthright about immigrating from Bombay &#8212; now called Mumbai, and one of the world\u2019s largest exporters of software engineers to the U.S. &#8212; to find a new life in America as a software engineer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wanted to make a statement that I was a traditional blues man, so I wanted to be playing blues and have nobody even wonder where I came from,\u201d says Kumar, 36, frontman and harmonica player for the Aki Kumar Blues Band.<\/p>\n<p>The cover for &#8216;Aki Goes to Bollywood&#8217; pays tribute to classic Indian cinema poster design.<br \/>\nThe cover for &#8216;Aki Goes to Bollywood&#8217; pays tribute to classic Indian cinema poster design.<br \/>\nBut after more than a decade of playing with top-notch blues musicians and recording a rock-solid first album Don\u2019t Hold Back (which garnered widespread accolades from the Los Angeles Times to Dan Aykroyd), Kumar is taking his love for the blues to unexpected places.<\/p>\n<p>This month, he released his second album, Aki Goes to Bollywood, a stylistic mashup of old songs from Indian blockbuster films of his childhood with Chicago-style blues. \u201cIt\u2019s Mumbai meets Muddy Waters,\u201d says Kumar, who reworked Hindi-language hits from big names in Indian pop music &#8212; Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi, and Mukesh &#8212; and made them his own.<\/p>\n<p>American blues fans are used to seeing their music evolve and take on new forms, but back home in India, Kumar notes, musical culture isn&#8217;t so malleable. As he worked on the arrangements for Aki Goes to Bollywood, Kumar nervously sent rough mixes back home to his parents, both still living in India, whose love of music Kumar credits for planting the seeds of his musical career.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was terrifying in some ways. These songs are national treasures in India, sung by legends,\u201d says Kumar. \u201cBut I think we pulled it off, and for me, it was the coming together of the music I discovered in the U.S. and my musical roots growing up.\u201d By Kelly Whalen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Meet San Jose musician Aki Kumar today, and he&#8217;ll proudly introduce himself as \u201cThe Only Bombay Blues Man.\u201d But there was a time when Kumar, while making a name for himself on the Bay Area blues scene more than a decade ago, would intentionally downplay his Indian heritage. He wasn&#8217;t so forthright about immigrating from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1117,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v17.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>KQED: Blowin&#039; the Blues Bollywood-Style with Aki Kumar - Little Village Foundation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/kqed-blowin-the-blues-bollywood-style-with-aki-kumar\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"KQED: Blowin&#039; the Blues Bollywood-Style with Aki Kumar - Little Village Foundation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Meet San Jose musician Aki Kumar today, and he&#8217;ll proudly introduce himself as \u201cThe Only Bombay Blues Man.\u201d But there was a time when Kumar, while making a name for himself on the Bay Area blues scene more than a decade ago, would intentionally downplay his Indian heritage. He wasn&#8217;t so forthright about immigrating from [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/kqed-blowin-the-blues-bollywood-style-with-aki-kumar\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Little Village Foundation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-08-25T01:55:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-07-02T02:05:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-01-at-7.00.45-PM.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1404\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"713\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"lvadmin2017\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/\",\"name\":\"Little Village Foundation\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/kqed-blowin-the-blues-bollywood-style-with-aki-kumar\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-01-at-7.00.45-PM.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-01-at-7.00.45-PM.png\",\"width\":1404,\"height\":713},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/kqed-blowin-the-blues-bollywood-style-with-aki-kumar\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/kqed-blowin-the-blues-bollywood-style-with-aki-kumar\/\",\"name\":\"KQED: Blowin' the Blues Bollywood-Style with Aki Kumar - Little Village Foundation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/kqed-blowin-the-blues-bollywood-style-with-aki-kumar\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-08-25T01:55:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-07-02T02:05:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/#\/schema\/person\/9fa80c762bc712494264d84d256a65ff\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/kqed-blowin-the-blues-bollywood-style-with-aki-kumar\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/kqed-blowin-the-blues-bollywood-style-with-aki-kumar\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/kqed-blowin-the-blues-bollywood-style-with-aki-kumar\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"KQED: Blowin&#8217; the Blues Bollywood-Style with Aki Kumar\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/#\/schema\/person\/9fa80c762bc712494264d84d256a65ff\",\"name\":\"lvadmin2017\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/03a764ff8b4640409844a986327e60e6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/03a764ff8b4640409844a986327e60e6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"lvadmin2017\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/author\/lvadmin2017\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"KQED: Blowin' the Blues Bollywood-Style with Aki Kumar - Little Village Foundation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/kqed-blowin-the-blues-bollywood-style-with-aki-kumar\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"KQED: Blowin' the Blues Bollywood-Style with Aki Kumar - Little Village Foundation","og_description":"Meet San Jose musician Aki Kumar today, and he&#8217;ll proudly introduce himself as \u201cThe Only Bombay Blues Man.\u201d But there was a time when Kumar, while making a name for himself on the Bay Area blues scene more than a decade ago, would intentionally downplay his Indian heritage. He wasn&#8217;t so forthright about immigrating from [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/kqed-blowin-the-blues-bollywood-style-with-aki-kumar\/","og_site_name":"Little Village Foundation","article_published_time":"2016-08-25T01:55:03+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-07-02T02:05:26+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1404,"height":713,"url":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-01-at-7.00.45-PM.png","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"lvadmin2017","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/#website","url":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/","name":"Little Village Foundation","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/kqed-blowin-the-blues-bollywood-style-with-aki-kumar\/#primaryimage","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-01-at-7.00.45-PM.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-01-at-7.00.45-PM.png","width":1404,"height":713},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/kqed-blowin-the-blues-bollywood-style-with-aki-kumar\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/kqed-blowin-the-blues-bollywood-style-with-aki-kumar\/","name":"KQED: Blowin' the Blues Bollywood-Style with Aki Kumar - Little Village Foundation","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/kqed-blowin-the-blues-bollywood-style-with-aki-kumar\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2016-08-25T01:55:03+00:00","dateModified":"2018-07-02T02:05:26+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/#\/schema\/person\/9fa80c762bc712494264d84d256a65ff"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/kqed-blowin-the-blues-bollywood-style-with-aki-kumar\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/kqed-blowin-the-blues-bollywood-style-with-aki-kumar\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/kqed-blowin-the-blues-bollywood-style-with-aki-kumar\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"KQED: Blowin&#8217; the Blues Bollywood-Style with Aki Kumar"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/#\/schema\/person\/9fa80c762bc712494264d84d256a65ff","name":"lvadmin2017","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/#personlogo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/03a764ff8b4640409844a986327e60e6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/03a764ff8b4640409844a986327e60e6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"lvadmin2017"},"url":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/author\/lvadmin2017\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1113"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1113"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1118,"href":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1113\/revisions\/1118"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}