Blick Bassy

Cameroonian singer/songwriter Blick Bassy entered the world in 1974 and spent his early childhood in Yaoundé, Cameroon’s capital. At ten he was sent to his grandparents’ village, where immersion in the traditions of his Bassa forebears awakened a lasting connection to ancestral culture. He assembled his first group, Jazz Crew, at seventeen, then launched Macase in 1996; that ensemble issued Etam in 1999 and Doulou in 2003. After departing Macase in 2005, Bassy settled in Paris and worked as a session musician alongside Manu Dibango, Cheick Tidiane Seck, Lokua Kanza, and Etienne Mbappe until securing a deal for his solo debut. The resulting album, Léman—whose title translates as “mirror”—appeared in the United States via Four Quarters on May 19, 2009. Two years afterward he issued Hongo Calling and, around the same period, took up residence in the small northern-French village of Cantin. His third studio album, Akö, marked his first release on France’s No Format imprint in 2015. In the ensuing years he devoted the bulk of his time to extensive international touring.