Colin Bass (born 4 May 1951) is an English musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. Since 1979, he has been a member of the British progressive rock band

Camel A camel (from: la, camelus and grc-gre, κάμηλος (''kamēlos'') from Hebrew or Phoenician: גָמָל ''gāmāl''.) is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. ...

, who, after a ten-year hiatus due to the ill health of bandleader Andrew Latimer, returned to active touring in 2013. From 1984 to 1992, he was also a core figure in the pioneering World Music group 3 Mustaphas 3. He has also made two solo albums under his own name and three albums recorded in Indonesia under the name Sabah Habas Mustapha. The title track of the first, "Denpasar Moon", became a hugely popular song in Indonesia in the mid-1990s and has been covered by over 50 Indonesian, Malaysian, Japanese and Filipino artists. As a record producer he has worked with a diverse range of international artists including:

the Klezmatics The Klezmatics are an American klezmer music group based in New York City, who have achieved fame singing in several languages, most notably mixing older Yiddish tunes with other types of more contemporary music of differing origins. They have ...

(USA), SambaSunda (Indonesia), Daniel Kahn & the Painted Bird (USA) Krar Collective (Ethiopia), Etran Finatawa (Niger) and

9Bach 9Bach is an alternative folk group formed by Welsh singer-songwriter and pianist Lisa Jên and guitarist Martin Hoyland, a veteran of 1990s alt-rock band Pusherman. The group now includes Dan Swain (bass guitar), Esyllt Glyn Jones (harp, voca ...

(Wales) amongst others. As a guest artist he has appeared on albums by a number of internationally acclaimed artists including top Malian singing star Oumou Sangare, playing on all tracks of her 1993 ''Ko Sira'' album.

Biography

Early life and career

Bass was born in London and first started playing professionally in 1968 as guitarist with a band called the Krisis, playing the UK club and ballroom circuit, after which he switched to bass guitar and joined

Velvet Opera Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera, at various times also known as "Velvet Opera", was a British rock band active in the late 1960s. Members of the band, Richard Hudson, John Ford and Paul Brett, would later become members of The Strawbs, Hudson For ...

in 1970 with whom he made his first recordings for Spark Records.

1970s

In 1971, he joined an incarnation of the 1960s group

the Foundations The Foundations were a British soul band (m. 1967–1970). The group's background was: West Indian, White British, and Sri Lankan. Their 1967 debut single " Baby Now That I've Found You" reached number one in the UK and Canada, and number e ...

and spent a year playing the cabaret clubs mostly in northern England. In 1971, he met

Ernie Graham Ernie Graham (born Ernest Graham; 14 June 1946 – 27 April 2001) was a Northern Irish singer, guitarist and songwriter, active from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s. Early life Ernie Graham was born in Belfast, and was training to be a me ...

, formerly of

Eire Apparent Eire Apparent were a band from Northern Ireland, noted for launching the careers of Henry McCullough and Ernie Graham, and for having Jimi Hendrix play on, and produce, their only album. History Tony and The Telstars The origins of the group ...

and, together with guitarist Jonathan Glemser, they formed the band Clancy. The band became part of London's growing Pub-Rock scene and briefly signed with

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, anothe ...

but were dropped after differences with producer

Muff Winwood Mervyn "Muff" Winwood (born 15 June 1943, Erdington, Birmingham, England) is a British songwriter and record producer, and the older brother of Steve Winwood. Both were members of the Spencer Davis Group in the 1960s, in which Muff Winwood pla ...

. Shortly afterwards, the band signed with

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

and recorded two albums: ''Seriously Speaking'' (1974) and ''Every Day'' (1975). The line-up on both was: Bass (bass, vocals),

(guitar, vocals),

Gasper Lawal Gasper Lawal (born 23 September 1948 in Ijebu Ode, Nigeria) is a Nigerian drummer, griot, and composer who has publicized traditional African percussive languages in the West. As a performer, his "Afriki" sound created a fusion of Nigerian percussi ...

(percussion), Dave Vasco (guitar), Dave Skinner (keyboards, vocals) and Barry Ford (drums, vocals). Clancy split in 1976 and Bass joined

Steve Hillage Stephen Simpson Hillage (born 2 August 1951) is an English musician, best known as a guitarist. He is associated with the Canterbury scene and has worked in experimental domains since the late 1960s. Besides his solo recordings he has been a m ...

, who was putting together a band to promote the album '' L'' on a six-month tour of Europe and the USA. The line-up included ex- Jethro Tull drummer

Clive Bunker Clive William Bunker (born 30 December 1946) is a British drummer. Bunker is best known as the original drummer of the rock band Jethro Tull, playing in the band from 1967 until 1971. Never a self-professed technical drummer, Bunker engage ...

. In 1977, Bass was invited by American saxophonist and composer Jim Cuomo, who had occasionally played with Clancy, to participate in his musical ''Woe Babylon'' at the

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh F ...

. The band from the show included pianist Ollie Marland and drummer Miguel Olivares and this quartet became a project known as the Casual Band. Olivares was later replaced by ex- Back Door drummer

Tony Hicks Anthony Christopher Hicks (born 16 December 1945) is an English guitarist and singer who has been a member of the British rock/pop band the Hollies since 1963, and as such was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. His main rol ...

. Recordings were made with producer Tom Newman but were never released. In 1979,

tour manager Laurie Small introduced Bass to British progressive-rock band

. The line-up at the time was Andrew Latimer (guitar, vocals), Andy Ward (drums) and keyboardists

Kit Watkins Kit Watkins (born 1953) is an American progressive-ambient-jazz recording artist based in Brattleboro, Vermont. He was previously a member of the band Happy the Man.Varga, George (December 28, 1983). "Labyrinth, Kit Watkins, Azymuth Records", ''Th ...

(ex- Happy The Man) and

Jan Schelhaas Jan Russell Schelhaas (born 11 March 1948) is an English musician, mostly known as the keyboard player from the bands Caravan and Camel. Biography Schelhaas was born in Liverpool, where he started his career playing bass for several bands and r ...

(ex-

Caravan Caravan or caravans may refer to: Transport and travel *Caravan (travellers), a group of travellers journeying together **Caravanserai, a place where a caravan could stop *Camel train, a convoy using camels as pack animals *Convoy, a group of veh ...

). There followed two albums ''I Can See Your House From Here'' (1979) and ''Nude'' (1980) and respective international tours.

1980s

In 1981 at the end of the "Nude" tour, Andy Ward's health problems led to Andrew Latimer's dissolving of the band. Bass relocated to Paris where he recorded an album and performed live with old colleague Jim Cuomo. Returning to the UK in 1983 he took up a teaching post, played sessions and club and pub gigs with various line-ups until Andrew Latimer invited him to rejoin Camel for the 1984 "Stationary Traveller" tour. In the same year he started to play with the Anglo-Ghanaian band Orchestra Jazira, which led to his induction in the pioneer world-music group 3 Mustaphas 3, who renamed him as Sabah Habas Mustapha. Between 1985 and 1991, the 3 Mustaphas 3 recorded four full albums and sundry singles and EPs and established a cult following for their live performances, touring in the USA, Europe, Japan and also in the then

Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...

countries of East Germany, Hungary and Bulgaria.

1990s

When the 3 Mustaphas 3 stopped activities in 1991, Bass went to

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...

where, over the next ten years, he recorded three solo albums with Indonesian musicians under the name of Sabah Habas Mustapha. The first, '' Denpasar Moon'' (1994), was recorded in

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital city, capital and list of Indonesian cities by population, largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coa ...

and explored the sounds of the popular music style

dangdut Dangdut () is a genre of Indonesian folk music that is partly derived and fused from Hindustani, Arabic and to lesser extent, Malay and local folk music. Dangdut is a most popular musical genre in Indonesia and a very popular in other Malay w ...

. The title song, "Denpasar Moon", first released in 1993, became a major hit in Indonesia in the form of a

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song relea ...

by a singer from the Philippines called Maribeth and was subsequently recorded by over 50 different Indonesian artists and also artists from Malaysia and Japan. In 1997, Bass founded the Kartini Music record label whose first release was another Sabah Habas Mustapha record, ''Jalan Kopo'', recorded in

Bandung Bandung ( su, ᮘᮔ᮪ᮓᮥᮀ, Bandung, ; ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of West Java. It has a population of 2,452,943 within its city limits according to the official estimates as at mid 2021, making it the fourth most ...

, Indonesia, and this time influenced by the sounds of the west Javanese province of Sunda. The title cut from that record is played as pre-show music for the nighttime fireworks/water spectacular IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth at

Epcot Epcot, stylized in all uppercase as EPCOT, is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division. Inspired by an unre ...

, located in

Walt Disney World The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, near the cities of Orlando and Kissimmee. Opened on October 1, 1971, ...

in Orlando, Florida. At the same time, the 1990s saw a rejuvenated

back on the scene after a long period of inactivity due to a protracted legal dispute with previous management. In 1991, Andrew Latimer, now relocated to California, invited Colin to participate in the recording of "Dust and Dreams", the first release by his own label Camel Productions, which was followed by a world tour in 1992 with the line-up of Latimer, Bass and

Mickey Simmonds Mickey Simmonds (born 31 January 1959, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England) is an English session keyboardist, arranger and composer. He is best known for his work with progressive rock acts, Mike Oldfield, Renaissance, Camel and Fish. He ha ...

(keyboards) and Paul Burgess (drums). Between then and 2003, Camel released another three studio albums and undertook subsequent tours all documented with live albums and DVDs. In 1998, Kartini Music released Bass' first album under the name Colin Bass: ''An Outcast of the Islands''. Recorded in Poland and California and featuring Andrew Latimer on guitar, the then Camel drummer Dave Stewart and a number of Polish musicians, the album gathered critical praise and helped establish his reputation in Poland. Subsequent tours produced two live albums: ''Live at Polskie Radio 3'' (1999) and ''Live Vol.2: Acoustic Songs'' (2000).

2000s

2000 also saw the release of another Sabah Habas Mustapha album recorded in Bandung: ''So La Li''. It further explored the sounds of the Sundanese region and featured again the multi-instrumentalist Ismet Ruchimat and several musicians from his group SambaSunda. ''So La Li'' won wide critical acclaim and was nominated for a BBC Radio 3 World Music Award. Bass lived in Berlin, Germany from 1988–2011. From 1994 until the end of 2008, he wrote and presented a weekly radio show for RBB Radio Multikulti and WDR Funkhaus Europa in Germany: "Sabah am Sonntag", presenting musical rarities and curiosities from around the world.

2010s

In 2012, Bass moved to North Wales, and set up Wild End Studio. In 2013, he travelled to Niger to produce an album for Etran Finatawa, recorded in a tent in the Sahara desert. That same year Camel returned to the stage with a European tour and a live DVD recorded at their concert at the London Barbican. In 2014, Bass co-produced the album ''Tincian'' by Welsh band

with post-production and mixing completed at Wild End Studios. Camel embarked on part 2 of the 'Snow Goose' European Tour. 2015 saw another Camel European Tour and

winning the 'Best Album' category at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards for ''Tincian''.

Discography

Solo

* 1998: ''An Outcast of the Islands'' * 1998: ''As Far as I Can See'' EP * 1999: ''Denpasar Moon'' EP * 1999: ''Live at Polskie Radio 3'' 2 CD * 1999: ''Poznań Pie – Live in Concert'' VHS * 2000: ''Live Vol. 2 – Acoustic Songs'' * 2002: ''Gently Kindly'' * 2003: ''In the Meantime'' * 2003: ''An Outcast of the Islands'' – Remastered + 3 bonus tracks * 2005: ''Planetarium'' – With

Józef Skrzek Józef Franciszek Skrzek (born 2 July 1948, Siemianowice, Silesia, Poland) is a Polish multi-instrumentalist, singer, and composer, an important figure in Polish rock. Life In his early career, Skrzek was associated with the groups Ślęża ...

* 2006: ''In the Meantime'' – Remastered + 5 bonus tracks * 2012: ''An Outcast of the Islands'' - Reissue * 2015: ''At Wild End''

Albums by other artists produced by Colin Bass

* 1989: ''Chisi'' by

Stella Chiweshe Stella Chiweshe (also Stella Rambisai Chiweshe, Stella Rambisai Chiweshe Nekati, Mbuya Stella Chiweshe, or Stella Nekati Chiweshe; 8 July 1946 – 20 January 2023) was a Zimbabwean musician. She was known internationally for her singing and pla ...

(Piranha) * 2005: ''Rahwana's Cry'' by SambaSunda (Network Medien) * 2010: ''Tarkat Tajje / Let's Go!'' by Etran Finatawa (Riverboat/WMN) * 2010: ''Lost Causes'' by Daniel Kahn & the Painted Bird (Oriente) * 2011: ''Java'' by SambaSunda Quintet (Riverboat/WMN) * 2012: ''Ethiopia Super Krar'' by Krar Collective (Riverboat/WMN) * 2012: ''Go Calypsonian'' by Lord Mouse and the Kalypso Katz (Piranha Music) * 2012: ''Anewala - Walking Man' by Alhousseini Anivolla (Riverboat/WMN) * 2013: ''The Sahara Sessions'' by Etran Finatawa (Riverboat/WMN) * 2014: ''Tincian'' by

(Real World Records)

As Sabah Habas Mustapha

* 1994: ''Denpasar Moon'' * 1998: ''Jalan Kopo'' * 1999: ''So La Li'' * 2004: ''Denpasar Moon'' 2004 – remastered + bonus

With Camel

* 1979: '' I Can See Your House from Here'' * 1981: ''

Nude Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing. The loss of body hair was one of the physical characteristics that marked the biological evolution of modern humans from their hominin ancestors. Adaptations related to h ...

'' * 1984: '' Pressure Points: Live in Concert'' (live, 11 May 1984, Hammersmith Odeon, London, UK) * 1991: ''

Dust and Dreams ''Dust and Dreams'' is the eleventh studio album by Camel. Released in 1991 after a seven-year hiatus during which Andrew Latimer and Susan Hoover moved from England to California to set up their own Camel Productions label, the album was insp ...

'' * 1993: ''

Never Let Go ''Never Let Go'' is a 1960 British thriller film starring Richard Todd, Peter Sellers and Elizabeth Sellars. It concerns a man's attempt to recover his stolen Ford Anglia car. Sellers plays a London villain, in one of his rare serious roles. P ...

'' (1993) (live, 5 September 1992, Enschede, Netherlands) 2 CD * 1996: '' Harbour of Tears'' * 1997: '' On the Road 1981'' (1997) (live, BBC radio, 2 April 1981, Hammersmith Odeon, London, UK) * 1998: ''

Coming of Age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can ...

'' (1998) (live, 13 March 1997, Billboard, Los Angeles, USA) – Live CD and DVD * 1999: ''

Rajaz Rajaz (, literally 'tremor, spasm, convulsion as may occur in the behind of a camel when it wants to rise') is a metre used in classical Arabic poetry. A poem composed in this metre is an ''urjūza''. The metre accounts for about 3% of surviving ...

'' * 2001: '' The Paris Collection'' (2001) (live, 30 September 2000, Bataclan-Club, Paris, France) Note: CD wrongly states concert as 30 October * 2002: '' A Nod and a Wink'' * 2012: ''The Snow Goose'' (new re-recorded version)

With 3 Mustaphas 3

* 1986: '' Orchestra BAM de Grand Mustapha International and (Jolly) Party – Local Music'' * 1987: ''

Shopping Shopping is an activity in which a customer browses the available goods or services presented by one or more retailers with the potential intent to purchase a suitable selection of them. A typology of shopper types has been developed by scho ...

'' * 1990: ''

Soup of the Century ''Soup of the Century'' is an album by the British band 3 Mustaphas 3, released in 1990. It was the band's final studio album. The album peaked at No. 1 on ''Billboards World Albums chart. Production Among the instruments used on the album were t ...

'' * 1991: '' Friends, Fiends & Fronds'' * 2001: '' Play Musty for Me''

References

External links

Colin Bass official website

Colin Bass discography and album reviews, credits & releases
at

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Music ...

Colin Bass solo album discography, releases & credits
at Discogs.com
Colin Bass credits on different albums
at Discogs.com
Colin Bass solo albums to be listened
as stream at Spotify.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Bass, Colin 1951 births English bass guitarists English male guitarists Male bass guitarists English record producers Living people Camel (band) members English songwriters English expatriates in Germany British expatriates in Indonesia English rock bass guitarists English male singers English rock guitarists Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera members Musicians from London Progressive rock bass guitarists