BLICK BASSY
Léman
World Connection/Four Quarters 1812

Cameroonian pop music is best known for two fast-paced dance tempos: makossa and bikutsi, which would make native son Blick Bassy an anti-pop star. Léman (“Mirror”) features sunny tones and swaying rhythms that frequently evoke the Caribbean more than Central Africa. It’s hard to pigeonhole Bassy’s music with precision, though decided bossa nova influences run throughout. It’s only the Bassa language lyrics of songs such as “Solo” that remind us we’re not in Latin America, for instance. In fact, Bassy’s musical wrapper remains bright even when singing a potentially angry song such as “Africa,” whose content indicts royal rulers for their economic and cultural theft. That said a track such as “Donalina” mashes vocals and instrumentation together in an aural paste evocative of Nick Drake. In like fashion the call-and response vocals of “Nléla,” the cascading kora notes of “Song Boum,” and the heavy bass and light treble guitar patterns of “Sébénikoro” snap us out of island dreams. Bassy’s vocals are airy and smooth. Like everything else about this album they fall through an ambiguous crack—a register somewhere between alto and tenor that is, at times, sexually indeterminate. Léman may lack enough grit and contrast for some listeners, but those who enjoy buoyant jazz will embrace Bassy as a promising new voice.--LV