Aki Kumar

Akarsha "Aki" Kumar (born 1979 or 1980) is an Indian-born blues musician now living in Silicon Valley, California. After working at a technology job, he is now a harmonica player and vocalist.

Kumar moved to the US from Mumbai in 1998 to study, initially in Oklahoma City and then at San Jose State University in Silicon Valley. Soon after completing a degree in computer science, he went to work at Adobe.

While growing up, Kumar studied keyboards and tabla and had his first harmonica; his parents listened to Bollywood music and also "everything from Bach to John Denver, from Stevie Wonder to the Police". He was first attracted to oldies radio in the US and then found the blues through bars and clubs in the Bay Area; he studied with David Barrett, and played harmonica in a quartet called Tip of the Top. In 2013, when Adobe closed his department, he chose to focus on his music. His first album, released in 2014, was titled Don't Hold Back; his second, Aki Goes to Bollywood (2016), on bluesman's Jim Pugh's Little Village label, fuses Chicago blues and Bollywood music.

Kumar is eclectic in his blues style. He performs as half of a duo with guitarist Little Jonny Lawton as well as with his quartet, the Aki Kumar Blues Band, hosts blues jams and works as a session musician. He is sponsored by Seydel harmonicas. He has toured in Norway with Hans Bollandsås and in 2015 performed with him at the Nidaros Blues Festival. In 2016 he performed at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass.

Kumar lives with his wife Rachel, who continues to work in the computer field, in the Cambrian Park neighborhood of San Jose.