Desiree Bassett
Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Desiree Bassett has been singing from the age of two and began playing guitar at three. At eight, she played her first competition at the local fairgrounds, playing Joe Satriani tunes and gaining second place. At nine, she began taking singing and guitar lessons at the University of Connecticut music program. In addition to study, Bassett was listening to blues and rock music from the 1950s through the 1990s, influenced by artists as diverse as Joe Satriani, Jeff Beck, Rick Emmett, Jimi Hendrix, Reba McEntire and The Allman Brothers.
At the age of 12, Bassett was voted Talent America's Musician of the Year in 2005 in New York City and invited to play on the side stage at Ozzfest in Hartford, Connecticut. After these successes, Bassett started playing at open mics around Connecticut with local blues greats and national players. Living Colour bassist Doug Wimbish discovered Desiree at an open mic in Hartford, and invited her to play in his annual Wim-Bash the following night. She was now playing shows in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, and Vermont. She met and performed alongside Living Colour, Andy Aledort, members of the Allman Brothers Band, Johnny Vibrato, Pete Scheips Band, and XY Eli Band among others. In August 2005 she cut five tracks at Pat Keegan Studios in Wallingford, CT, playing all instruments. Bassett personally designed the artwork and pressed up and sold several hundred copies of the CD.
In December 2005 she entered the Olympics of Entertainment in New York; where she was selected as one of 16 finalists, going on to win the Silver Medal. She was invited to play at the music industry’s annual 2006 Winter NAMM show in Anaheim, California, where she picked up an endorsement from Peavey.
After returning from NAMM, Bassett accepted a production agreement from Nova Sound Studios run by Doug Wimbish and Andre Betts, one of Madonna's producers. Bassett adapted to studio work very well, writing several of her own songs and some with Wimbish. She also formed her own power trio, Desiree & The Time Machine, managed by her father.
She returned to perform at the 2007 Winter NAMM show, where she made many new contacts, including Joe Satriani, Dan Toler - formerly of the Allman Brothers Band, guitar maker Paul Reed Smith, Rick Emmett from Triumph, Leslie West from Mountain, and Rudolph Schenker from the Scorpions. Bassett was also featured in that July’s issue of Guitar Player Magazine.
At age 15, Bassett recorded her first full-length album, Power & Force. During the recording, she was still performing live, including an opening spot for Jimmie Vaughan and an opportunity to play lead guitar for Sammy Hagar and his band.
The CD release party for Power & Force took place two days after her 16th birthday at the Capitol Theater in Willimantic, Connecticut. Dissatisfied with the finished album, she was later given the opportunity to have the CD professionally remixed and remastered. It was reissued in 2009 as Power & Force II and received a full page endorsement ad by online distributor CDBaby, who declared it the best CD out of the 300,000 they received that year.
After the release of Power & Force II, Bassett immediately began working on her third CD. She also played at the 40th anniversary of Woodstock where she had the privilege to bring up Jimi Hendrix's original percussionist Geraldo Velez and end the night with Jimi's song “Purple Haze.”
Still aged only 17, by the end of 2009 Bassett had recorded 14 more original songs for the third CD. She hopes to study at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.
At G-TARanaki, Desiree will be supported in all performances by outsanding Kiwi performers, the same two members of top Hamilton band 8forty8 who backed Deep Purple bassist and singer Glenn Hughes at G-TARanaki 2008 – guitarist Simon Koretz and his drummer brother Nathan, joined this time by Derek Shaw on bass, from Siren and AKA, who also plays with Simon in the Stevie Ray, Cream and Hendrix Experience.
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