Mina Agossi

Mina Agossi is a Franco-Beninese jazz singer who pays continuous tribute to Jimi Hendrix, covering one of his songs on each album. Born in Besançon on January 6, 1972, to a Beninese father (whom she didn't meet until the age of 24) and a French mother, Mina Agossi grew up between several African countries and France, before moving to Spain in 1990, then to France two years later. She gave her first concerts with a saxophonist, then joined the Breton group Swing & New Orleans (1993), before recording her first self-produced album with double bassist Vincent Guérin, Voice and Bass (1997), which won the Fnac Jeune Talent prize. Already, the singer covers a Jimi Hendrix tune, as she will continue to do on EZ Pass to Brooklyn (2001), Carrousel (2004) and subsequent albums. Invited to the Crest Jazz Vocal festival by Archie Shepp in 2004, Mina Agossi was followed by the ADAMI program and signed with the Candid jazz label, which released the compilation Zaboum!! and the album Well You Needn't (2005), which inaugurated her collaboration with Japanese drummer Ichiro Onoe and trumpeter Rob Henke. Nominated for a Victoires du Jazz award in 2006, the singer went on to record Who Wants Love? (2007), featuring double bassist Éric Jacot, followed by Simple Things? (2008) and Just Like a Lady (2008), on which she mixes her own compositions with standards. In 2011, the electric album Red Eyes sees her collaborate with friend and supporter Archie Shepp, before Fresh (2014), which also benefits from the services of guitarist Stéphane Guéry and this time Russian violinist Alexei Aigui, from the 4'33" ensemble with whom she had already collaborated in 2003 on the album Mix. In 2017, in addition to her participation in the Marseille album by pianist Ahmad Jamal (who was also her manager), Mina Agossi records with a new team the all-original collection UrbAfrika, where her voice is surrounded by the percussion of Paco Séry, Philippe Combelle and Laurent Succab.

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