Feature

MINA AGOSSI: ALL THAT JAZZ!

Ever since the legendary Josephine Baker stepped off the train at Gare St. Lazare in 1925, Paris has enjoyed an ongoing love affair with jazz that has lasted right up to the present day. To where today the French capital is home for one of modern jazz`s most internationally-acclaimed rising stars - 36-year-old singer/songwriter/producer Mina Agossi.

Famed for pushing the boundaries with her highly-personalised, minimalist `voice & bass` style, Madamoiselle Agossi (the product of a French Breton mother and West African father) certainly represents one of contemporary music`s most unique and charismatic vocalists. As admirably displayed in the Bohemian creativity of her latest album `Simple Things?`. Combining Mina`s distinctly sparse, original songwriting with surprising, almost startling avant-garde interpretations of familiar standards (ranging for a French-sung update of blues queen Bessie Smith`s `A Good Man Is Hard To Find` to a scintillating treatment of Pink Floyd`s `Money`), it boasts acoustic accompaniment throughout from Parisian bassist Eric Jacot and Japanese drummer Ichiro Onoe; as well as occasional input from legendary former Weather Report percussionist Mandolo Badrena, mini-Moog keyboardist Fred Dupont, plus French rapper Racos. In London for her album launch, an ever-charming and effusive Ms. Agossi gives `B&S` the lowdown on her music over mid-afternoon drinks in her West End hotel`s spacious cocktail bar.

“I`ve been working within this trio concept for 10 years, and so with this new album I wanted to literally make a resume of everything I`ve done in that time”, begins Mina in impressively-good English: “So, there are songs in Spanish, in French, in English... But everything is linked by the title `Simple Things`. I purposely keep my lyrics quite basic, mainly because I think the music itself is weird enough without me becoming too engaged as a lyricist. Which is why I prefer to talk about quite general, abstract things. So, with everything that`s going on on the planet today, for the title song I was thinking of how everything complex in the world today could just be made simple. I mean, if we just think of doing simple acts and saying simple things, maybe things would be changing faster and easier. So in that way I was using a kind of pseudo-psychological question like `Can we just get to the essence of things and stop talking nonsense all the time?`. You know, if individually we started doing things like being nice to our neighbours and cleaning up our rubbish, that might be a good start! And it`s really funny how I came across Racos, the rapper on the track. He`s actually a taxi driver, but he raps in his car! And one day he drove me to the airport and I just thought this guy HAD something! So I literally just invited him then and there to guest on my album!”

With `Simple Things?` having recently followed its predecessor (2006`s `Well You Needn`t`) into the French Top 10, its refreshing and uncompromising musical vibe was created during a couple of days recording last October at Studios La Buissonne in South West France: “Yeah, it was absolutely gorgeous!”, recalls Mina with a smile: “I had a villa with a swimming pool, we spent seven days there rehearsing - waking up when we wanted; starting at eleven am at the earliest, finishing at six pm - so it was like a dream come true! The studio was about 30 miles away from the villa, and we recorded the whole CD there in two days. It`s actually one of the best studios in France - people like Ahmad Jamal record there - and specialises in recording bass. Which was obviously ideal for me.”

“You know, you can actually trace my `voice & bass` style right back to 1992”, she continues, now in full flow: “I`d been thinking of putting a band together. But that day there was only a bass-player available for me to rehearse with. So, as my grandmother was in a wheelchair, the two of us decided to play one song for her. And the performance ended up being so emotionally-charged that she ended up crying! So, after that experience, I decided I was gonna stick to that bass-and-voice combination and just add drums. It really was totally natural - nothing calculated at all.”

While Mina intends to continue recording - and touring elsewhere - with her long-established trio, for UK live performances future plans may include setting up her own band of British musicians in a concerted attempt to increase her UK profile: “The last two or three years has been a very tough period”, she reflects: “With the music industry flopping, it`s been more and more difficult for musicians to play and find gigs. Which is why I went into a period of reshaping things, like finding a new booking agent. And, with it being very expensive for me to bring my own players to the UK to tour, I am thinking of setting up a UK band specifically for dates in this country. So I`m currently looking to find a flat or a hotel-room here where I can at first stay maybe six days a month. So I can get to meet my UK people, and rehearse and practise with my English team. You know, with so many negative things happening in the industry right now - in France in particular the economy is disastrous - we musicians really do need to focus on the future and explore new ways to maintain our status.”

The album 'Simple Things?' is out now through Candid
Words PETE LEWIS