Singer was no one-hit wonder

Bass

R&B and jazz scene that spawned artists such as Miles Davis, Ike & Tina Turner, Chuck Berry, Ann Peebles, Oliver Sain and Julius Hemphill.

Like fellow St. Louisian Josephine Baker in the ’20s, Bass relocated to Paris, where in the ’70s opportunities for American jazz and soul musicians were often more bankable than in America.

The essential document of that period is “Theme de Yoyo,” which, like the rest of “Les Stances,” was recorded for a French film of the same name. It’s a heaving, bawdy sexual romp set on the ChampsElysees used in the film to score a scene in a French discotheque.

The Ensemble specialized in brass-heavy breakdowns that showcased Bowie and sax players Joseph Jarman and Roscoe Mitchell, as well as bassist Malachi Favors and percussionist Don Moye’s hard rhythms. “Yoyo” is vital evidence of its success.

Above a groove that suggests a collision between Ornette Coleman and James Brown, Bass describes a passion in Paris that’s sweaty and messy. “Your head is like a Yoyo / Your neck is like the string / Your body’s like a Camembert / Oozing from its skin.”

The full-throated Bass delivers such couplets patiently over the course of the nine minutes, each offered amid a screeching soul-funk-jazz groove that occasionally collapses into a structureless mess like a plane in a tailspin, only to recover the groove just in time.

It’s an art that Bass perfected over her life. Though she only occasionally released albums, in the mid-’90s she put out three acclaimed soul records that confirmed a powerful voice.

And when she teamed with British jazz/EDM fusion group the Cinematic Orchestra for studio work in 2002, an enduring voice was introduced to a new generation.

Bass might have been considered to be a onehit wonder in most of the world, but in her city she offered a model by which to mark a path. For her, “Rescue Me” was a ticket out, and she took full advantage.