A triple bill at Cafe Nine on Saturday Night featured a stunning set of music from Blick Bassy. Born in Cameroon and now living in France, the 50-year-old Bassy has been a musician all his life; he toured Cameroon as a younger man and now tours internationally, as far as New Zealand, playing clubs and festivals. In short, it’s very likely the next time we have a chance to see Bassy, it will have to be in a much larger venue.
Bassy and his backup band — two musicians, one of whom played programmable drum pads and touch pads and the other who played keyboards and trumpet — deployed a vast array of electronics and effects to create a huge sound. The programmable pads were used to make slippery bass parts. The trumpet was run through effects to allow it to sound like a horn section. Bassy himself sang through one of three possible microphones, two of which were run through processors to create harmonies for his voice. The marriage of organic and electronic sounds was seamless and endlessly inventive, and all anchored by Bassy’s voice: strong, raspy, somehow declarative and plaintive at the same time, always suffused with great depth of feeling. He sang in his native tongue of Bassa, but communicated his message loud and clear.
featured two younger New Haven acts who tipped their hats to those older than they were, even as they showed everyone in the room that the future of music in the Elm City is in safe hands.
