{"id":219,"date":"2017-04-15T23:33:43","date_gmt":"2017-04-15T23:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/2017\/?p=219"},"modified":"2020-03-15T20:24:52","modified_gmt":"2020-03-15T20:24:52","slug":"aki-kumar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/littlevillagefoundation.com\/lv2021\/aki-kumar\/","title":{"rendered":"Aki Kumar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-1 nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0);background-position: center center;background-repeat: no-repeat;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-bottom: 0px;margin-top: 0px;border-width: 0px 0px 0px 0px;border-color:#eae9e9;border-style:solid;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-0 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-1\"><h1>AKI GOES TO BOLLYWOOD<\/h1>\n<p>Muddy Meets Mumbai<br \/>\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/175976819?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0\" width=\"750\" height=\"422\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h1>PRESS<\/h1>\n<p>PBS NEWSHOUR &#8211; Art Beat<br \/>\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pnPaSmPxgtw?rel=0\" width=\"750\" height=\"422\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Meet San Jose musician Aki Kumar today, and he\u2019ll 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\u2019t so forthright about immigrating from Bombay \u2014 now called Mumbai \u2014 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<h3>The cover for \u2018Aki Goes to Bollywood\u2019 pays tribute to classic Indian cinema poster design.<\/h3>\n<p>But after more than a decade of playing with top-notch blues musicians and recording a rock-solid first album \u201cDon\u2019t Hold Back\u201d (which garnered widespread accolades, ranging 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, \u201cAki Goes to Bollywood,\u201d a stylistic mashup of old songs from Indian blockbuster films of his childhood with Chicago-style blues.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s Mumbai meets Muddy Waters,\u201d says Kumar, who reworked Hindi-language hits from big names in Indian pop music \u2014 Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi, and Mukesh \u2014 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 says musical culture isn\u2019t so malleable. As he worked on the arrangements for \u201cAki Goes to Bollywood,\u201d Kumar nervously sent rough mixes back home to his parents 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<\/p>\n<h1>ARTIST BIO<\/h1>\n<p>I first met Akarsha Kumar over ten years ago. He was already a well studied traditional player, already the shining star pupil of the discerning, tasteful and careful educator and player David Barrett. I was impressed by the young man\u2019s ability to play traditional blues in the style of Little Walter and other past icons better than most I have heard twice his years in age and time on the harmonica. He was humble, funny, good looking and was engaged to an equally gifted young lady. I communicated with Aki several more times over the last ten years on a very shallow, harmonica-esque level, at best.<\/p>\n<p>If you are listening to Aki\u2019s music while reading this, you are hearing a real artist \u2013 not just another blues harmonica player. Aki Kumar is too strong for simple techniques, trends, or cliques. This music you\u2019re hearing is an honest reflection of a brave, unashamed, bold, individual taking risks with a sense of humor, integrity and self that few artists of any genre have ever really dared to do especially on this early of an outing. I\u2019m impressed. I\u2019m a fan.<\/p>\n<p>Aki stands to lose a lot from a marketing perspective with this release: These mostly Indian songs done in a Western fashion by a natural born Indian artist are something not too short of actual blasphemy in India. My Indian friends tell me there is a real risk of insult to Indian culture and sacred Indian music culture at work here. Conversely, Aki\u2019s album is not TRADITIONAL blues either\u2026 Aki is blending Indian pop songs with traditional blues approaches, singing unafraid with his accent and using sitars behind Delta blues jams when he\u2019s not putting Howlin\u2019 Wolf behind beloved Indian Pop tunes. That is NOT a formula for success in the growing, rigid world of Blues Purists. Blues purity is how Aki was musically raised in this country\u2026 from the nest of the Bay Area and under the wings of birds like Mark Hummel, David Barrett, Rick Estrin and others this Bali-Bird was hatched. No this album is not a \u201csafe\u201d or even expected Blues release\u2026This album is a marketing nightmare, an impossible sell, a potential financial failure, a slap in the face to both the Eastern and Westen Cultures that nutured him as a child both culturally and musically\u2026. This album is great art! -Jason Ricci<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-2 nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0);background-position: center center;background-repeat: no-repeat;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-bottom: 0px;margin-top: 0px;border-width: 0px 0px 0px 0px;border-color:#eae9e9;border-style:solid;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-1 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><div class=\"fusion-title title fusion-title-1 fusion-title-text fusion-title-size-one\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:31px;margin-left:0px;\"><h1 class=\"title-heading-left fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" style=\"margin:0;--fontSize:50;line-height:1.4;\">Listen<\/h1><span class=\"awb-title-spacer\"><\/span><div class=\"title-sep-container\"><div class=\"title-sep sep-double sep-solid\" style=\"border-color:#e0dede;\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><iframe src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/track\/76QsCcXRyZ13iPQwOIL68o\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\"><\/iframe><div class=\"fusion-soundcloud\"><iframe scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/little-village-foundation\/pri-the-world-interviews-aki-kumar&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=true&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;visual=false&amp;color=ff7700\" title=\"soundcloud\"><\/iframe><\/div><div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[17],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v17.9 - 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