{"id":10401,"date":"2016-05-24T00:01:31","date_gmt":"2016-05-24T07:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jazzusa.com\/?p=10401"},"modified":"2013-05-28T21:49:29","modified_gmt":"2013-05-29T04:49:29","slug":"offiong-bassey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/?p=10401","title":{"rendered":"Offiong Bassey"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 12px;\">Shining like the moon\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12px;\"> She was born with a story on her lips, a tune in her ear, and the purpose implied by her name, Offiong Bassey, God\u2019s Moon, on her heart. Music and storytelling for Offiong have always been second-nature: \u201cI inhale my surroundings and exhale melodies. I perceive my world and create another with rhythm and harmony.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"480\" height=\"300\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/g4OW0EHaGvY?feature=player_detailpage\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12px;\">Singer, songwriter, producer, and poet, Offiong Bassey is an exciting new artist that draws upon the numerous influences that have touched her life. As the first generation from her Nigerian family born in the U.S., the soul, jazz, gospel, and Latin music of America reside within her just as comfortably as the musical traditions of West Africa. She brings to them her unique ear for harmonies and phrasing, her ground-shaking, power vocals, and her unmatched versatility to create music that is fresh, inspiring, and just plain fun.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12px;\">Though her sound is one-of-a-kind, Offiong has had many teachers. The first of these was her namesake, her grandmother, who would sing her traditional songs from their Efik tribe, imparting to Offiong the power of music and the richness of her cultural heritage and storytelling tradition. At a young age, Offiong began to see her name, God\u2019s Moon, as a call to be a reflection of her creator\u2019s light, as the moon is to the sun, through story and song.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12px;\">That call continued to sound in her ear like an endless melody that she heard in everything, as it guided her on her path. Along the way, she found further inspiration in other great teachers, artists ranging from Angelique Kidjo, Miriam Makeba, and Fela Kuti to Rachelle Ferrell, Lauryn Hill, and Jonathan Butler.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12px;\">Music followed her to Yale University, where she sang in acclaimed singing group Shades, was a celebrated soloist on its 2005 album, Sankofa, and directed and performed \u201cA Moonlit Evening\u201d, an intimate concert of original songs she produced during her senior year. Her artistry has been deepened by her extensive travels to places like Japan, Spain, Panama, Nigeria, and Ghana, and she has shared her inspiring story in song with diverse audiences, including South African youth in Johannesburg, attendees at the U.S. Africa Business Summit in Washington D.C., and music lovers at Boston\u2019s GreenSoul Fest. Most recently, she was honored to perform for the Obong (King) of Calabar, Nigeria and the Governor of Cross River State, Nigeria.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Titles from her self titled release include:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>LEGITIMATE CHILD<br \/>\nThis song affirms that all people, regardless of the circumstances of their birth, their past, or their present, are legitimate and purposeful in the eyes of their Creator. On this song, we decided to bring together the groove of Calypso with the majestic call of traditional Calabar-style Nigerian drumming to herald the coming of the honorable, the worthy, the blessed Legitimate Child.<\/p>\n<p>Some call you fatherless, some call you motherless\/ some call you hopeless, some call you \u201ca mess\u201d\/ but it is not how they address you\/ it\u2019s the name that you answer to that matters in the end<\/p>\n<p>EDIDEM<br \/>\nThis chorus is in my native tongue of Efik and is an adaptation of a prayer my grandparents taught me based on the Biblical Psalm 91. I went back to my roots on this one, singing over a traditional \u201cEkombi\u201d rhythm from my family\u2019s Efik tribe.<\/p>\n<p>EFIK<br \/>\nEdidem, sn mi ke-eka ubok fo\/ yak mi nsinedo nwere\/ nwere, nwere, nwere\/ yak mi nsinedo nwere\/ Abasi, db mi ke-idak mba fo, yak mi nsinedo nwere\/ nwere, nwere, nwere, yak mi nsinedo nwere<\/p>\n<p>ENGLISH TRANSLATION<br \/>\nLord, take me in the palm of your hands\/ and there I will be able to roll around\/ roll, roll, roll\/ at rest in you\/ God, hide me in the shadow of your wings\/ and there I will be able to roll around\/ roll, roll, roll\/ at rest in you<\/p>\n<p>WEATHERMAN<br \/>\nThis track serves as a reminder that there is more to life than what we see and that there is One that transcends even our most trusted systems of understanding. We focused here on creating a dynamic sound that brought together some of my favorite influences, merging smooth Afro-jazz, contemporary soul, and the lyrical sharpness of spoken word poetry.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s forecasted won\u2019t necessarily happen\/ don\u2019t you judge by the clouds in the sky \u2019cause\/ the environment could change in the blink of an eye\/ some things the weatherman will never, ever know<\/p>\n<p>FULL MOON<br \/>\nWithout the light of the sun, the moon cannot shine, and the moon in its fullness is a reflection of the sun. When we are in line with the sun (or source), we reflect the fullness of that light, but as human beings we are constantly waxing and waning, shifting and changing. My name, Offiong Bassey, means God\u2019s moon, so this song is of special significance to my journey in life to become the embodiment of what my name implies. The Afro-Peruvian rhythms of this song transformed my vocal approach in the most unexpected yet organic of ways.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m waxing, I\u2019m waning, anticipating, full moon<\/p>\n<p>MISTAKING CHIVALRY FOR CHAUVINISM<br \/>\nThis track is pure fusion \u2013 a rap song with West African chants, R&amp;B flavor, a Hip Hop beat, a funky bass line, and even a Country-style guitar. This is the story of an \u201cindependent woman\u201d that has been burned by love and finds it difficult to trust. She mistakenly characterizes the gentlemanly advances of her suitor as chauvinistic. He has to wear her down and succeeds around minute two. This one is for the ladies and the men that want to win their hearts.<\/p>\n<p>I mistook his chivalry for chauvinism\/ all the love he gave to me\/ I didn\u2019t have faith in him\/ that he would view me as an equal intellectually\/ or that he thought I could administrate effectively\/ but I was wrong, he admired qualities in me\/ wanted to insure that I was comfortable and happy\/ so he pulled out my chair, opened the door and closed it\/ paid for me at dinner, and I\u2019m thankful<\/p>\n<p>CONCLUSION<br \/>\nWe have all experienced the consequences of our tendency to rush to judgment without having all the facts. This Afrobeat jam channels the legacy of the great Fela Kuti with its blaring horns, its fun, raucous energy, and its Afro-centric take on raw funk. The groove really took me over and inspired me to break out with some rap \u2013 in Nigerian Pidgin English, of course.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes you take an unseen action, you take half-heard remarks\/ and you construct a story \u2013 character, props, and plot\/ you judge a situation with inadequate information\/ you ain\u2019t supposed to do that<\/p>\n<p>CHASING AFTER THE WIND<br \/>\nSometimes we lose ourselves chasing after the wind, pursuing things that do not last. Materialism, vanity, and compromised self-worth are all just the result of a loss of perspective, when we lose sight of our true destiny and purpose. On this track, we worked to strike a balance between the Afro-pop groove that drives the song forward and the fluid jazz-soul vocals that whisper like the elusive wind.<\/p>\n<p>See the wind slips through my fingers, money doesn\u2019t always linger\/ clothes get moths and food will rot\/ but what I\u2019ve got isn\u2019t meaningless; this blessing will endure for eternity<\/p>\n<p>OWO IBA ME ITA<br \/>\nI like to call this tune \u201ca song for friends.\u201d Everybody knows that it\u2019s better to have two or three good and faithful people around you than to surround yourself with a crowd of folks in whom you cannot trust. We set this song, which is in both Efik and English, to West African Highlife with a Makossa drum beat to give it a celebratory feel. Speaking of faithful friends, I asked my brother Eniang Bassey to grace this track with his djembe drumming skills.<\/p>\n<p>When I feel the whole world is against me\/ and I can\u2019t tell my friends from my enemies\/ I\u2019m so glad to see it\u2019s not quantity but quality I really need\/ \u2019cause two or three can make a majority\/ when we\u2019re bound together in love, it doesn\u2019t matter, we can rise above the maze<\/p>\n<p>WILD OATS<br \/>\nWho\u2019s ever heard of the term \u201csowing your wild oats\u201d (or \u201csowing your \u2018royal\u2019 oats\u201d)? It\u2019s when we scatter ourselves, with respect to our money, our time, or our bodies, without considering the repercussions of our actions and the value of what we have to offer. This is a song about setting the priorities in our lives, and I drew on a soulful \u201970s vibe to couple the songs honest lyrics with an old school feel.<\/p>\n<p>We can\u2019t sow wild oats forever; our efforts will fly away like a feather\/ what do you reap? What will you reap?\/ if you gain the whole world and forfeit your soul\/ a temporary high leads to long-lasting lows\/ what do you reap?<\/p>\n<p>IT MIGHT BE HARD<br \/>\nThrough all that I\u2019ve faced, I\u2019ve realized that even in the most difficult of times, I\u2019m still in the arms of the Almighty, and in that quiet place, there is comfort. We drew upon the emotional honesty of the American gospel tradition to create a soundscape that mirrored the song\u2019s message while inspiring a more candid vocal interpretation of that message.<\/p>\n<p>You pick me up when I feel put down\/ You\u2019re a faithful friend, and I know full well now\/ That it might be hard, but it won\u2019t be hell\/ as long as You\u2019re with me, I have the eternal promises\/ oh it might be hard, but it won\u2019t be hell because\/ hell is separation from You<\/p>\n<p>EFIK PRAISE MEDLEY<br \/>\nThis is a medley of songs in my native language of Efik. Nothing gets people lifted quite like a Nigerian praise chorus, so we gave this track that flavor, with a characteristic big brass band, percussive bass line, and exuberant guitar solo, to give it a fervent, infectious energy that transcends language barriers.<\/p>\n<p>EFIK<br \/>\nIyang dobuyo\/ eyen Abasi modo ku ubom o<\/p>\n<p>ENGLISH TRANSLATION<br \/>\nPeace be still\/ for the Son of God is inside the boat<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shining like the moon\u2026 She was born with a story<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10401"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10554,"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10401\/revisions\/10554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}