Aki Kumar with Maurice Tani

Aki Kumar left his native home in Mumbai, India for the United States with the intention of working as a software engineer. Then he discovered the sounds of the blues, and his life changed dramatically.

A masterful harmonica player, soulful vocalist, band-leader, drummer and producer, Kumar is a man of many talents and one of the most prolific artists in the SF Bay Area today. He has successfully blended retro Indian music into his presentation, making for a unique, electrifying, multi-cultural mash-up that sounds like no one else, yet never loses touch with the inspiration it draws from the blues. A veteran of the San Jose music scene for two decades, Kumar was hailed as “…King of ‘Bollywood blues’ music” by SJ Mercury News (2022) and received the Metro Silicon Valley Gold Award for Best Band (2024).

Kumar’s “Little Village” releases “Aki Goes To Bollywood” (2016) and “Hindi Man Blues” (2018) are considered ground-breaking albums that have garnered international critical acclaim. In 2020, Kumar made major news with the world-wide launch of his album “Dilruba” on Sony Music. In 2021, Little Village released Kumar’s uplifting reggae-inspired single “Zindagi” (Life).

Aki Kumar has made multiple appearances at The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, San Jose Jazz & SF Jazz Festivals, and has been featured on PRI “The World,” KQED Arts and CBS Bay Area. He has toured extensively over the years, including in Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, Australia, India and South America.

Maurice Tani is a San Francisco born and based singer-songslinger, known for his wry/rye-to-romantic writing, agile guitar style and expressive singing. With his band, Maurice Tani & 77 El Deora has been the source of untold, but exquisite suffering on the west coast Americana scene for over twenty years. Tani now has ten albums to his credit. The latest is “All In!” (Little Village – LVF1052), a broad-spectrum tincture folk, soul, Americana and gospel featuring a wide array of guests from the Little Village roster.