Acclaimed blues musician out of France, Charles Pasi, comes to Beijing to woo audiences. 120/150 RMB
Charles Pasi was born in Paris.One day, when he is sixteen, his bus stops in front of a music store. Charles goes inside, just to have a look, as if he were being pushed by an invisible hand. He questions a saleslady, gets information, looks through the different exposed models, before leaving the store with a harmonica in his pocket, the same one as Bob Zimmerman, and a small initiation guide.
In Italy, he joins his first band as a harmonica player, the Mood In Black, a swing, blues, old style rock&roll band. Then back to Paris, he writes his first songs, alone. He is 22. “Mainly Blue” finally exists. 2006. What comes next is almost a miracle. Charles wins the Tremplin de Blues Sur Seine, giving him the possibility to perform in festivals.
The band (they are now four on stage, Charles behind the microphone and his harmonica) receives several awards. He performs a few years in a row in Canada, until the prestigious Montreal jazz festival. Without record label, nor hung-ups, Charles pacese the planet and conquers anonymous hearts. Then comes the International Blues Challenge of Memphis, international music competition, still in 2006. A jury of professionals selects one song and one band per country. His music is an ideal suitcase, it likes blues, soul, spontaneous and audacious mixes, it refuses to integrate a family which, anyhow will never be his since this family only exists in the minds of those who put labels on things.
2010: Charles wrote his second album. The concerts were sold out everywhere. Believe Recordings, at first a digital label, wants him as first signature. His exploits as smuggler have started fires He is also approached by a Tour management company, Blue Line. “Uncaged” is born in 2011. On this recording with a strong identity, many colors and melodies, where songs take you far, Archie Shepp accepted to play on two songs (“I was a huge fan of Attica Blues and Blasé, two great records which I knew by heart”).
His third album, “Sometimes Awake” (title inspired by a short story by Faulkner) will be available in october 2014. His style has of course evolved, the songs once again reveal his originality, his way of transfiguring everything, whether it is blues, soul, african american music, classical music. Charles experiments, tries things that resemble him: deep, sensual, free. Always with this inspiration from images. “When I compose, it’s very visual. My music is kind of like the soundtrack to my life. Sort of like a diary, the one I never wrote.” That’s exactly what it is
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