presenteert:

Under the title "Pointing the way to new music" AB and the eleven music clubs of the Club Circuit get together this concert season for an exciting series. Together they've selected 10 weekends when on each occasion another club will occupy the AB, while at the very same time the AB goes on location to that visiting club. With this project AB and the Club Circuit want to place some extra emphasis on their good relations.

We are now able to announce first concert for the exchange between AB and N9 in Eeklo:
ABCLUBCIRCUIT AB @ N9: BLICK BASSY
Friday 20 March 2009 9:00 pm
N9 Villa, Molenstraat 165, 9900 Eeklo
Tickets: €10 presale & €13 door sales
Tickets via 09 377 93 94 or www.N9.be

On March 20 the ABClub Circuit project ‘Pointing the way to new music’ may be interpreted literally. On that day, in N9 villa (Molenstraat 165, 9900 Eeklo), AB presents Blick Bassy whose first internationally distributed CD ‘Leman’ will only be released in the Benelux on March 3. ‘Leman’ will be released on quality label World Connection, home to the likes of Tito Paris, Sara Tavares and fado star Mariza.

Blick Bassy is from Cameroon. He grew up there with the country's traditional music but also often listened to people like Marvin Gaye or Gilberto Gil... influences that could be heard in his first band, Jazz Crew, with which he performed a sort of afro-jazz-bossa fusion. In ‘96 he started a second group, Macase, that released the two albums ‘Etam’ (‘99) and ‘Doulou’ (‘03) and became great stars in their own country. Macase received a number of prizes, Radio France International honoured them in 2001 with a Prix RFI Musiques Du Monde and at the Masa (largest music fair in West-Africa, in Abidjan/Ivory Coast) they were chosen as Best Group in that same year. Blick Bassy had already proven himself as a good singer and composer but in 2004 he also showed that he knows how to produce records too. The Koppo album that he arranged and produced sold 200,000 copies in entire West-Africa, a gigantic amount for that part of the world.

In 2005 Blick Bassy moved to Paris, where he quickly had the chance to prove himself and performed together with the likes of Manu Dibango, Cheikh Tidiane Seck, Keziah Jones and Lokua Kanza. It became time for a solo record, which he recorded himself, partly in Paris, partly in Salif Keita’s studio in Bamako/Mali with Keita’s regular producers Jean Lamoot (see too: Girls In Hawaii) and Jean-Louis Solans. The result has now arrived: ‘Leman’, a effervescent world record full of strong songs. Blick Bassy’s warm voice is placed in an acoustic environment, only subtly accompanied on guitar, kora and calabash. The sound is nimbly danceable, full of sun, ideal for a southern beach. The songs immediately get under one's skin ... which also promptly darkens. Blick Bassy does wonders for the state of mind. We predict a great, if not very great future.