To French-Beninese singer Mina Agossi, there’s nothing sacred about jazz standards.
She beatboxes on “Ain’t Misbehaving”, breaks into French in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and boils down Thelonious Monk’s classic “Well, You Needn’t ” to the point of reciting it.
And if that were not enough to scare away jazz purists, Agossi has done away with piano, guitar and a brass section, and sings with only drums and double bass for accompaniment.
She also takes on rock material, including several songs by Jimi Hendrix, in which she imitates the screeching, distorted guitar solos with her voice.
One of the rising stars of French jazz, Agossi has toured extensively in Europe and the United States, won a string of prizes and was the subject of a documentary on French-German arts TV channel Arte.
This week, she plays in London jazz club Ronnie Scott’s and the 36-year old makes no apologies about her bare-bones interpretation of the classics.
“I arrange the songs as I feel them, without betraying the roots. I get easily bored with straight ahead jazz. What is the point of playing like (John) Coltrane in 2008?,” Agossi told Reuters after a concert in Paris.
“We don’t arrange songs, we de-range them,” Agossi’s base player Eric Jacot added.
Critics have called the quirky Agossi a “jazz heretic” while giving her rave reviews.
“A sparkling improviser. Her joyful way of occupying the stage” makes “every concert a triumph” said Le Monde.
Agossi’s exploration of the limits of the human voice at times brings to mind American vocalist Laurie Anderson, but Agossi uses no synthesisers or voice computers.
“When I do a solo imitating the guitar, it is done naturally, only with the voice,” said Agossi, who conjures up the overdrive and feedback of Jimi Hendrix’ guitar on the psychedelic song “Spanish Castle Magic”.
While both Agossi’s own material and her interpretations of the jazz classics are decidedly off-beat, her latest album, “Simple Things?”, is a bit more mainstream, and includes a collaboration with a French rapper on the title track.
Daughter of a Beninese father and a French mother, Agossi grew up in Niger, Ivory Coast and Morocco, where here mother worked as an aid worker and teacher.
There is little trace of Agossi’s African roots in her music, though she says that she admires fellow Beninese singer Angelique Kidjo and loves the complexity of Benin rhythms.
“I was surrounded by the noise, the music and the perfumes of Africa all my life,” she said.
After returning to France, Agossi dropped out of her theatre studies to start singing with a rock band, but was convinced by a jazz club owner to try her hand at jazz.
“I thought jazz was for old people, but he said I should be a jazz singer and next thing he put my face on a poster for his club,” she said.
Audiences don’t seem to mind Agossi iconoclastic approach of the standards, nor the lack of traditional jazz instruments.
“Bass and drum, in fact, are rhythm instruments, yet her show is entirely musical,” said concert-goer Sofie De Caluwe after Agossi’s performance in Paris.
Tags:
american vocalist,
angel,
arte,
audience,
brass section,
collaboration,
eric jacot,
french jazz,
german arts,
hendrix guitar,
improviser,
jazz classics,
jazz club,
jazz standards,
jimi hendrix,
john coltrane,
london jazz,
love,
magic,
mate,
mina agossi,
morocco,
paris,
perfume,
perfumes,
psychedelic song,
rock material,
ronnie scott,
roots,
spanish castle magic,
synthesisers,
thelonious monk,
tin,
tradition,
triumph,
tv channel
Related posts