Firozi Cafe: Live

Firozi Cafe is serving up eclectic fusion music live at South Asia Institute on Saturday, April 18.

About Firozi Cafe

Firozi Cafe serves up hot Bollywood classics and effervescent South Asian folk melodies spiced with jazz rhythms and spiked with splashes of pop. The quartet consists of Shruti Vaidya (vocals, ukulele, guitar), Dave Arlington (drums, guitar), Tyler Williams (bass, vocals), and Andrew Pashea (guitar, vocals). The four musicians came together in Chicago after playing in various jazz, rock, pop, and Hindustani groups based in New York, St. Louis, New Delhi, and elsewhere. For this special performance, they will be accompanied by Sebastian Kiguel (of Chicago cumbia group Sonora Macondélica) on accordion.

Firozi Cafe’s original songs harken back to the golden age of Bollywood and jazz, mixing swing and swara to accompany original lyrics composed by Manpreet Kaur. The band also brings a new interpretation to classics in Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, Spanish, and English, frequently mixing multiple languages and styles in a single composition. The group explores the shared roots of South Asian and American popular genres, developing them in fresh and surprising directions. A Firozi Cafe show swings between raga and ragtime, Kishore Kumar and Frank Sinatra, bebop and Indi-pop—with plenty of delightful and unexpected turns along the way.