Guitarist Eric Bibb: Ridin’ the eternal wave of the blues
Blues guitarist and singer Eric Bibb has always been on the move. The tour for his 35th album Ridin’ has already taken him to Australia and France, a place where he spent time as a young musician. Travelling is part of his DNA as is exploring musical history from Mali to Mississippi.
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Erib Bibb has on many occasions described himself as a "troubadour", a travelling musician bringing stories and songs to the world.
On the cover of his latest album Ridin’, we see him sitting proudly on a horse, but he could just as well be sitting atop a crested wave – riding it all the way across the globe.
"Black music, whether it's from Africa or from America, has always been something very precious for the French music lovers and I felt that even when I came [to Paris] as a young man, I knew that there was great appreciation for my culture," Bibb told RFI in April.
The city, with its open-minded spirit and melting pot of musical genres cast a spell over him when he first came in the 1970s and that remains intact.
Melting pot
Reconnecting with French audiences especially after the closures during the Covid period has been an enormous pleasure says Bibb, who not only performed at several concerts but was invited to curate a musical homage to American pop artist Jean-Michel Basquiat as part of the exhibition "Basquiat Soundtracks" at the Philharmonie de Paris.
The "From Mali to Mississippi" performance featured artists from across the diaspora and was a showcase of sounds ranging from Senegalese kora to the Cajun and Creole music of Louisiana.
Kora music from West Africa has also cast a magical spell over Bibb since he was given an album of music from Guinea when he was 14. Later, he discovered kora music from Mali. It was as if he’d "come home" musically speaking, he says.
This opened doors to a different kind of musical and philosophical journey with numerous collaborations along the way with African artists such as Habib Koité and their album "Brothers of Bamako".
Bibb is still bemused at how continuously and easily blues music brings together people from all around the world.
He suggests that this musical culture has had a magnetic force for many musicians and audiences because it contains a "survival element", having been born out of extreme hardship.
A healing sound
"The fact that this music was produced and continues to be produced by people who were seriously marginalized, oppressed, abused, exploited to survive all of that and to be able to create a music that not only heals you, but heals others".
Originally from New York, Bibb hails from an artistic family. His father Leon Bibb was a folk singer and civil rights activist, his mother’s brother John Lewis was a pianist with the Modern Jazz Quartet.
As a boy he crossed paths with Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Joan Baez, Odetta and Pete Seeger.
He may have been intimidated by mingling with the crème de la crème of artists in the 60s and 70s, but he forged his own way, slowly and steadily. He reflects that this was probably a very good thing, rather than a sudden rise to fame.
"I didn't have a media-like rise to fame. It's taken me a long time to get to the place where I feel like I have appreciation from a global audience. And I'm glad it took that amount of time because the journey is even more important than the goal".
Eric Bibb is on tour in Ireland and the United Kingdom through to August
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