Vancouver Folk Music Festival
July 14 to 16, 2023
Blick Bassy | Cameroon/France
Imagine an African artist with the tenderly subversive touch of Bon Iver, the haunting falsetto of Skip James, the razor-like mind of Akala, and the inventiveness of later period Radiohead. You’ve just imagined Blick Bassy. Called “one of Africa’s most inventive and distinctive singer-songwriters” by The Guardian, Blick Bassy is a Cameroonian-born, French-based banjo player, guitarist, and songwriter. He is a traveler whose adventures are reflected in his eclectic and intriguing compositions, many of which feature the unusual combination of banjo and trumpet. A spirited, modern griot who sings in his mother tongue, Bassy is a true soul singer.
Bassy was originally a member of Macase, a multi-lingual and inventive jazz-fusion outfit based in Cameroon, but left the band and relocated to France in 2005 to explore new musical horizons. His music is genre-defying, his compositions astutely relate stories that touch on themes of education, exodus and migration from rural villages to African cities. Most of these stories stem from his personal experience and journey. He knows how to engage with any audience despite singing songs in the Bassa language, which neither the majority of his fans, nor his band mates, can understand. However, Bassy insists, “It’s for the artist to find a way to speak to people’s emotions and feelings, even when using an alien language”.