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Armand Sabal-Lecco The Eclectic Bass Player Talks
In the arcane world of music , there are discreet goldsmiths of sound . Alchemists of musical genres who transcend rhythmic colors to produce often unimaginable results . Armand Sabal is one of those whose discreet talent is matched only by his eclectic rarity . e Cameroonian-born bassist is the epitome of the fourstringed instrument ' s finest . From Paul Simon to Herbie Hancock to Stanley Clarke , he has played with the greatest . During an impromptu trip to Los Angeles , we had the pleasure of meeting Armand Sabal for an unfiltered interview , just the way we like it . In this unedited aside , Armand Sabal tells us almost everything . A veritable artistic journey , the most anecdotal episodes of which could be the subject of a film — why not ? e Cameroonian bassist ' s career is so rich in facts that it must be told for the pleasure of readers and the posterity of musical art as he sees it .
30 Flashmag ! Issue 147 January 2024
Hello , Armand , and welcome to Flashmag . An almost ritual question : how did you get into music ? Was it really easy , given that you come from a family where the parents were very strict about so-called bookish education ? How did your family , and in particular your father , who was a minister in the government of Cameroon , understand that music was your path , even though he had played the guitar a little in his youth ?
It wasn ' t easy , even though , when I was growing up , I started music as a recreational activity . I wasn ' t really thinking of making a career out of it . My parents , of course , were of the old school and didn ' t consider music to be a serious profession . I remember that with my father holding several ministerial posts , it was di cult to leave our house , which was guarded , to go and play music at night .