Aki Goes to Bollywood, is an unexpected and unexpectedly wonderful meeting of American blues and Indian pop. The meeting happened, though, in California\u2019s Bay Area. The project is part of the Little Village Foundation\u2019s mission to uncover the hidden cultures and music of the state. Other releases have covered folk, blues, mariachi and Latin American traditional music (some of the latter coming from communities where the language is neither English nor Spanish, but pre-Colombian dialects).<\/p>\n
But this? Go figure! The story behind the album is surprising enough. Akarsha Kumar was born in Mumbai, moving to Silicone Valley at 18, eventually becoming an Adobe software engineer. He\u2019d studied Hindustani traditional music as a child, but over here became infatuated with blues and early rock and took up the harmonica, playing in club bands at night after work. At some point along the way, he realized that some Bollywood pop was heavily influenced and modeled on American rock and pop and might lend itself to some specifically blues-rooted interpretations.<\/p>\n
Jim Pugh, executive director of the Little Village Foundation and an accomplished blues keyboard player as well, agreed when he encountered Kumar a few years back. And here we are with something likely never before heard, whether in California or Calcutta.<\/p>\n
For the most part the songs find a great balance between the styles, the best featuring stinging guitar lines, roiling piano, hard-four beats and Kumar\u2019s blowzy harp fitting perfectly with the buoyant froth of some classic Bollywood production numbers. On first listen to such delights as the opening \u201cBadan Per Sitaare\u201d (the original found in the 1969 Bollywood movie \u201cPrince\u201d and sung on that soundtrack by icon Mohammad Rafi) it\u2019s a perfect tease \u2014 a riff that sets you up for Muddy Waters instead leading to bubbly Hindi. <\/p>\n
Songs that are basically blues with Indian touches, such as the slow stomper \u201cMy Home is a Prison\u201d (with guitarist Kit Anderson adding a little sitar), are less successful, but still worthy experiments.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s much to delight here, but the absolute must-hear is Kumar\u2019s take on \u201cEena Meena Deeka,\u201d originally from a big band boogie-woogie fantasy sequence in the 1957 Tamil movie \u201cAasha,\u201d featuring the voice of all-time top playback singer Asha Bosle. Kumar and band transform it into pure Southside swing scorcher. It\u2019s Chicago deep-dish pizza \u2014 masala style.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Aki Goes to Bollywood, is an unexpected and unexpectedly wonderful meeting of American blues and Indian pop. The meeting happened, though, in California\u2019s Bay Area. The project is part of the Little Village Foundation\u2019s mission to uncover the hidden cultures and music of the state. Other releases have covered folk, blues, mariachi and Latin American […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1124,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n