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After Club Fox’s long-running blues jam ended this spring, Alhambra Irish House is preparing to bring a jam to Wednesday nights in Redwood City.
The Irish gastropub and restaurant at 831 Main St. will kick off its weekly jam on Oct. 7 from 7 to 10 p.m. Musician Aki Kumar and his band, The SBGs, will host it.
“Why don’t we see if we can keep that spirit of blues jamming going in Redwood City?” Kumar said of his conversation with Erika Barry, the co-owner of Alhambra. “Same night, same city, different venue.”
Erika Barry, the co-owner of Alhambra at 831 Main St., said Kumar has performed a few times at her pub and that he thought to start a blues jam there.
“When he came with the idea, we were just absolutely for it,” Barry said. “He’s a very, very popular Bay Area musician.”
Kumar said he and Barry were talking about the end of the Club Fox jam, which is what led to the vision to start their own.
Barry said Kumar hosts Sunday blues jams in San Jose, but because the jam at Club Fox was so popular and “people actually want to stay in Redwood City,” she and Kumar figured there was an audience for one at Alhambra.
Barry pointed to Alhambra’s full restaurant service, all-ages setting and 19th-century façade and décor as special features of the venue.
Vince Caminiti, the “master” behind Club Fox’s former weekly jams, said he’s “glad someone is doing something there,” as his jam “died due to lack of participation of jammers.” He added that “if Aki can get more jammers, great” because he wants to see “the music continue.”
Caminiti said Kumar’s jam format would be different because “[Kumar] is the band.” He said that “regardless of whether people come in or not, [Kumar] can play the whole night.”
Club Fox recently began a separate monthly blues night on Thursdays.
Kumar described Caminiti’s format as a “unique” combination of concert and jam: A host band performed a show, and during the hour-long intermission, the stage opened to amateur jammers.
Kumar intends to have The SBGs play before and between visiting musicians. The band can play “all night long,” even if few jammers turn out, he said.
“We’ll play the opening set to warm up the crowd and get the blood flowing,” Kumar said, “and when local blues musicians arrive, I will start inviting them up to the stage in different configurations and see what they have to do and say on stage.”
Kumar acknowledged this is a “new endeavor,” so he’s not sure “specifically how things will go before I settle into a format.”
The mission behind this undertaking is to foster community, as he’s done in San Jose. The musicians there, 20 to 30 of them, show up “almost every week,” he said. “The key” is to run the jam consistently and ensure “there’s a good thing going here,” Kumar said, in order to have “a party on our hands.”
“I’m just really grateful Erika is considering doing this,” Kumar said. “Many venues around come and go a lot; There’s no consistency in the live music business.”
Kumar moved from India to the Bay Area and worked as a software engineer in his 20s, he said. After he “fell in love” with live blues, he began “playing gigs every week.” He became a full-time musician in his 30s and has performed in Chicago, Spain, Germany, Oregon and elsewhere.
Kumar also performs what he calls “Bollywood Blues,” a blend of Indian and blues music, and recorded an album in this style for Sony Music. He has performed at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass and SF JAZZ, and his band won gold for Metro Silicon Valley’s best local band in 2024.
Alhambra is seeking sponsors to help pay for the jam’s professional lighting and sound system, as well as Kumar’s band. Barry said she is considering sponsorship options, including a VIP table with a meal.
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