Blick Bassy

Blick Bassy

Nov 22

NOVA BASSA INSPIRED BY SKIP JAMES

Where: The Hug & Pint
When: 20 November 2017
Support: Ryan Joseph Burns

I knew very little about BB before this gig and so was completely unprepared for how good he was and for the range of sounds made by him and his band. The music mainly came from his recent album Akö. The dozen punters who turned up, seated around tables, were treated to a mix of delta blues and Cameroonian rhythms that was often stunning.

Blick Bassy was in excellent voice throughout, whether singing sweetly in his native tongue of Bassa or more forcefully on the harder bluesy numbers or in making some unique vocal noises to punctuate the songs. Visually he was also impressive – cutting a striking figure in his (soft velvet?) powder blue onesie. He also played a variety of African instruments and banjo.
Propped up at the front of the stage was the Skip James album Devil Got My Woman. BB told us how, when sat as a newly arrived immigrant in his small flat in Paris, it was listening to Skip James that gave him the inspiration to spread his musical wings. The result is this unique blend of his Cameroonian musical heritage with the delta blues.

Clément Petit on cello was a revelation – I was mesmerized by his energy and his standard mode of plucking of the cello strings so that it played the role of the guitar in a traditional blues set up. It added to the unique sound created by BB and BB did acknowledge that his sound would be very different without CP. The third member of the group was Johan Blanc was also very good on trombone and effects.

This was one of those magical gigs where the musicians were uniformly excellent and created an unexpected, beautiful, haunting uplifting music and transported their audience from a place far from the cold, wet Glasgow night.

 

Band page

Sample video