Misiya – Etienne Mbappé, 2004

🇨🇲🎸🌍🎶🔥 In 2004/2005, Alexis Blanchard breathed new life into his O+ Music label. He released three excellent albums by Ultramarine’s ‘old hands’, Mario Canonge, with Rhizome, Mokhtar Samba with Dounia, and Etienne Mbappé’s first album as leader, Misiya. The Cameroonian bassist launched himself as a leader with his group Su La Také (The End of Suffering), formed in this first version with Jean-Christophe Maillard, Roger Biwandu, Lionel Fortin, Hervé Gourdikian and Gérard Carocci. Coco Mbassi and Sissi Laubé provide the backing vocals. With Misiya, Etienne Mbappé delves into the richness of his influences, obviously in Cameroon, but also in jazz fusion, often very rock (Ee To Kem, Malinga Ma Loba…), with here and there borrowings from North Africa, Spain, classical music… The result is an imaginary journey, sometimes nostalgic (Cameroun O Muléma, Maléa…) but often with an irresistible groove (Ambass, with its roots in makossa, or Mukanbilan, immersed in assiko). Etienne covers Ewoudou from Ultramarine’s repertoire in a very acoustic version, and along the way we also come across Andy Narell, Bobby Nguime, Christophe Cravero (already!) and Valentine Duteil on cello. Last but not least, the album is co-produced with the great (and much-missed) Félix Sabal-Lecco, who is on the programme on a number of tracks.