Ida Nielsen

Ida Nielsen has released her sixth album, "More Sauce, Please!", on German Leopard Records on June 16th 2023.

The audaciously funky andmulti-talented Danish bassist-singer-songwriter-bandleader Ida Nielsen, aformer member of two of Prince’s backing bands — New Power Generation and thefour-piece rock-edged 3rd Eye Girl — is set to release her sixth album as a leaderoverall and fourth since the passing of her former mentor in April 2016.Playing her signature 4-string Sandberg California electric bass with typicalauthority while fronting all the vocals and also supplying multiple keyboardparts, Nielsen combines slamming funk beats, slap bass virtuosity, agilerapping, catchy pop hooks and tons of attitude on More Sauce, Please!‍

From the hard-hitting opener, “BeenTrying,” featuring slick turntable scratching by Congolese DJ Amazulu Nanga anda burning alto sax solo from her countryman Jakob Elvstrøm, to the orchestralpop rap closer, “Give Me A Bit Of…,” More Sauce, Please! throbs withhigh energy and bristles with stunning musicianship by the multi-talentedbandleader. Added to the potent mix are the adept rapping of Son of Light onthe slow-chugging funk of “Bounce Like a Grandma,” the playfulcall-and-response between Ida and Finnish beat boxer/scratch maestro FelixZenger on the slamming rock-funk number,“Ninja,” the infectious ‘70s flavored “GloriousDisco” and the mondo-slap bass and two-handed tapping showcase, “Slappadibopbop,”

Nielsen showcases her own formidablerapping chops by spitting some rapid-fire rhymes on “Kuku Put Some Sauce OnIt,” and she supplies multi-layered vocal harmony on the entrancing “MorePeople Like You.” Her meditation on love lost, “It’s Gone,” features sometelling lines from rapper Victor Danos while Ida’s exhortation to “tap intoemancipation” on “Shake It Off” reads like an optimistic anthem for her fellowfunkateers: “If your life sucks, whatcha gonna do? (Shake it off!)/If yourheart breaks, whatcha gonna do? (Shake it off!)/If you’re stress level’s goingthrough the roof, whatcha gonna do? (Shake it off!).”

Nielsen also pays tribute to Prince onthe Minneapolis styled funk number, “Bounce Back,” which features her singingin Prince-like falsetto, a la “Kiss” or “Cindy C,” and also carries a rampagingslap bass solo in mid-song. “I learned so much from Prince that it is difficultto boil down to a few lines,” she explained, “but what I usually say about thewhole experience is that it was a huge gift and the most magical musicaljourney ever, and an ongoing learning experience beyond all imagination.’” Ida,who dedicated her 2016 album TurnItUp to her late mentor, added, “Themost important thing Prince taught me was to play with my heart, always!”

It was in August of 2010 that theDanish bassist received a call at her home in Copenhagen from The Purple Onehimself to come to Paisley Park to jam with him. It turned out to be a kind ofinformal audition; one that Ida passed with flying colors. As she recalled,“Prince’s manager at the time called me and said that he saw my Myspace profileand would like to jam with me. And then she told me that she would call meback. And when two weeks went by without a call, I totally thought it was aprank. All my friends knew it was my biggest dream to play with Prince so Ialmost did not dare to believe it in the first place. But eventually she didcall me back. And, of course, that whole ride was life changing in so manyways.” She added, “I was an all-round bass player before I joined Prince in2010, but my heart was always with the funk. I just love it so much. And Ithink this is what got me the NPG gig in the first place.”

Aside from Prince,whom she toured with from 2010 until his premature departure in 2016, Nielsenhas cited such bassists as Marcus Miller, Mark King, Larry Graham, BootsyCollins and Victor Wooten as her slap bass role models, which is evident in herown thunderous approach on More Sauce, Please. “All my albums are bassheavy, old school funk with flavors of hiphop, reggae, neo soul and worldmusic,” she said. “My last album, 02022020, was more lofi, dreamy andloungy because I felt like doing something else, and a lot of my fans weredisappointed by the lack of slamming funk. So I am now back on the old schoolfunk track and actually created some aliases to be able to channel my writingin other genres elsewhere.”

Born in the smallDenmark town of Aarhus, Ida began singing inthe school choir before picking up the bass at age 16. She spent most of the‘90s studying at the Royal Danish Academy of Music before joining a number ofbands in and out of college. She toured Europe with the Belgian pop groupMichael Learns To Rock and was later hired as touring bassist with theBelgian-African band Zap Mama, founded by Zaire native Marie Daulne. Nielsenreleased her debut as a leader, 2008’s groove-laden Marmalade, under thename Bassida. It introduced her funky signature, which would later manifest onher second solo album, 2011’s Sometimes a Girl Needs Some Sugar Too, aswell on 2016’s TurnItUp, 2019’s Time 2 Stop Worrying and 2020’s02022020. ‍

In 2014, Nielsenplayed alongside Prince, guitarist Donna Grantis and drummer Hannah Welton on3rd Eye Girl’s PlectrumElectrum. She last performed with Prince at anexclusive, celebrity-studded New Year’s Eve bash hosted by Russian oligarchRoman Abramovich in St. Barts on Jan. 1, 2016. As she told MusicRadar: “I realize that there’s a lot of Prince fans out there that wantto support me. I really appreciate that, and I really appreciate that theystill love the funk.”

And there is plentyof funk for fans to savor on Ida’s latest, More Sauce, Please!

Ida was voted amongst the top 10 bass players in the world.

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