Bas performs with a harmonica rack and jazz guitar, layering a sound that is both nostalgic and new, shaped by Django Reinhardt, Paco de Lucia, Jimi Hendrix, Jo Privat, and Toots Thielemans. He hit the stage at 15 and has spent his career bending genres rather than obeying them.
In 2006 he co-founded Vavavoom, a post-Katrina collective whose album was named Best of the Decade by WWOZ and which won the Big Easy Award for Best Emerging Band in 2007. In 2010 he launched Harmonouche, blending Gypsy jazz, swing, musette waltz, Latin grooves, blues, and trad jazz across three albums, with tracks featured on Putumayo's Vintage France and Paris Café compilations and festival stages including French Quarter Festival, Jazz Fest, Satchmo Fest, and Festival International de Louisiane. He has collaborated with Sam Andrew of Big Brother and the Holding Company, accordionist Norbert Slama, and cornetist Jack Fine.
These days Bas performs weekly in New Orleans, is working on his debut solo album and a fourth Harmonouche record, and still tours widely — recent gigs have taken him from Nice to Chicago, Brooklyn, Miami, Portland, and back to his hometown of Bourges.
