Kotto bass biography of barack
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His major hits, including Concours de la patience, Edith ndola'a ngo, and Papa promesse, left a lasting mark on the Cameroonian music scene. As one of his siblings confessed, Kotto Bass could sing the entire repertoire of the Duala Choir, Makôm m’Eses’a Yehova, before he was six years old. How much of our own music do we know and master before going out to embrace the world?
It recounts the life of the artiste who beat the odds of a handicap – probably caused by polio – and a humble background to rise to fame.
In line with Kotto Bass’ life story, Danielle Eyango set up the Kotto Bass Foundation in Douala in 2015 to assist physically challenged kids from underprivileged backgrounds. While there are great names in this epoch, I often reference Kotto Bass’ performance on Henri Njoh’s segment in Age d’or as the best resumé of what you need to know about Makossa bass playing and somehow bass playing altogether.
In that track, Kotto Bass explores the Makossa walking bass technic in the style of Jean-Dikoto Mandengue in the first part; followed by the groovy free-form conversational bass style you would hear in Aladji Touré’s works … he punctuates his lines on the track with licks, chromatic passing notes and a solo that underlines the jazz influences of Makossa bass playing pioneered by the likes of Vicky Edimo and Guy Nsangue.
He started his music career as a bassist, later evolving into a vocalist. How many of our current artistes would be able to execute Afo-Akom’s pentatonic chants or marry these types of chants with foreign influences?
Fermez les guillemet!
Today, we may validly ask what is left of Kotto Bass’ experimentation with Soukous/Makossa fusion.
It was about giving more appeal to those Congolese classics usually characterized by melancholic guitar solos and borderline depressive vocals.
The “Ponce Pilate” remix was a huge hit with the Cameroonian public and propelled Kotto Bass to instant fame.
The song was so successful that in 1994 Kotto Bass decided to further explore the concept with a whole project around the same idea of putting “Makossa sauce” on Soukous music.
More recently, when Hervé Nguebo used to be called Nguebo Solo, his crew “Ktier Show” released an entire album in this genre which was not so successful. Do these our excellent break dancers and Shaku-Shaku dancers know how to dance Mbaghalum, Malley or Bikutsi? He did it so well that Henri Njoh crooned “Ah….Kotto Bass!”.
Kotto Bass also poured his genius as a bassist and vocalist on the two albums he released, both marked by that unique percussive playing – with notes precisely posed in staccato over the soundscape – and a mellifluous falsetto voice.
Ouvrez les guillemets….
Kotto Bass’ successful fusion of genres opens reflections about the current debates on the Cameroonian music scene about “foreign” influence and how much of it we should allow in “our” music.
Soukous fusion contained five tracks, including Kotto Bass’ remix of Congolese Classics like Lipua Lipua’s “Nouvel Génération” (1975), and personal compositions like “Edith Ndol’a ngo”.
The success of the first volume of Soukous Fusion naturally led to a second volume, Soukous Fusion 2 recorded in 1996. This experiment birthed Kotto Bass’ first album: Soukous Fusion.
He never had the chance to perform “Yes, Bamenda!” at a highly awaited concert programmed for Bamenda.
Summarizing Kotto Bass to his brief two years of fame as a solo artist does not do justice to the suffix “Bass” in Nyamsi Kotto’s name. In Danielle Eyango’s words “There is a cemetery named after my Uncle…but I believe his legacy ought to be bigger and I am contributing to make that happen”.
– Ngochi Moun’Afese Mor’Mbeuwing for PS
Links to a few songs referenced in the paper…
Henri Njoh-Age d’or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hxf6oPC9QBU
Kotto Bass – Ponce Pilate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjr7DqwHrkc
Tabu Ley – Ponce Pilate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-XXejBIp10
Franco – Infidélité Mado https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trKnUFmPp48
Kotto Bass – Oké Mado https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EksSCmpCAjg
Lipua Lipua – Nouvelle Génération https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrhPVGA5UY4
Kotto Bass – Nouvelle Génération Mixte https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6n0MIUvwFE
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At Sam Fan Thomas’ studio Makassi, he laid the bass riffs of some of the hits that rocked the late eighties and early 90s.What is even more amazing is that half of his repertoire are remixes of old Congolese songs!
The story of his brief career in the public eye begins in 1993, when Makassi Studio recorded a tribute album to Nelle Eyoum. Cameroonians chanted his lyrics , jived to his music and even mastered the rhythm of his instrumentals . The approach was pursued by other artistes, including Marshall Bongo and Papa Zoe, who had collaborated on the Kotto Bass’ albums.
Kotto Bass is widely hailed as one of Cameroon’s musical greats but few are aware that he cemented that fame and legacy with just TWO albums over a solo career that spanned TWO years!
Nguebo branched out into Afro Jazz altogether.
All this to say that today we cannot easily point to any artist in view who is fully committed to soukous-makossa crossbreeding like Kotto Bass was.