He is a gem. That's what journalists write about him. He used to be a difficult child though, crying a lot for no reason, from the moment he was born in 1967 in the little village of Minta, East Cameroon, until he was three years old. Maybe he was crying because he didn't know yet how much he was gifted and hadn't discovered what would allow his sensibility to express itself. Because from the day he saw somebody playing balafon, he stopped crying. He was just fascinated. He could sit there, staring at the musician and listen to the music for hours.
Richard Bona's talent could come out. He grew up in a home filled with music: his grandfather and mother were singers. According to his mother, this little fellow had something special to to do with music. Soon he would build his own balafon and started to practice it eight to twelve hours a day.
At 5 years old, he began to perform in public, singing in the village church with his mother and sisters. He started to use his unbelievable, amazing and natural ability to learn any instrument only by watching it being played. The main problem was the difficulty to provide himself instruments in his village. So Richard not only got to know how to practice them, he also learned how to make his own! From wooden flutes to percussion instruments, he easily built everything he needed. Well, not that easily though. When it came to build a guitar he had some trouble to find guitar strings. Then the bicycle shop saved him. What can have a bicycle shop and a fabulous young talent who lives in a small Cameroonian village in common ? That actually led to the wonderful bass player who performs with illustrious musicians today… Because Richard was not only gifted, but also clever. He had no guitar strings, so he stole a couple of bicycle brake cables to make some! It's a funny and cute story, if we compare to what Richard has become.
So, was it thanks to the guitar with very special strings or not, Richard was highly in demand to sing and play at baptisms, weddings, and church fonctions! The word of this prodigious young musician had spread throughout the village. He then moved to Douala and lived with his father. He began working as a musician, thinking that 'the guitar was the hip instrument that you had to play'. He began playing gigs at 11 years old, replacing his homemade model by a professional-style guitar. He got a job playing guitar in bars at night time, making people dance.
The next step of our gem's fabulous ascent occurred thanks to a Frenchman in 1980. This guy established a jazz club in a local hotel and he began to look for musicians. Richard was recommanded. He didn't know anything about jazz, but because the Frenchman told him he would get paid 20 times what he was then earning, he took the job! Instruments were provided and the club owner had a 400-500 jazz LP's collection. Richard would spend his entire day there, learning to play instruments, as well as reading and writing music. Because he had not much time before the Frenchman's business starts, he had to work very fast. But Richard was confident, there was never a shadow of doubt about his ability to learn how to play jazz simply by listening. Indeed, a virtuoso who was not impressed by virtuosity.
A portrait literally changed Richard's life, as the first record he pulled out of the LP's collection was Jaco Pastorius's one, pioneer of the modern bass guitar. There was a song on it called 'Portrait of Tracy'.
Richard wasn't interested in playing bass at that time : ' Before I heard Jaco, I'd never even considered playing bass. But when I heard that music, I had to check the turntable to make sure that the pitch was right! I thought it might have been fast!' He was captivated and literally addicted. He began to play bass, from fusion to more traditional styles.
The loss of his father when he was 17 made him realise that it would be a good idea to make another move. Maybe by exploring other countries.
He packed up and flew to Paris when he was 22. When he first arrived, standing in the cold wearing only shorts and a light shirt, he doubted a little bit to have made the right decision. But he decided to give the city a chance anyway. It would have been a shame not to do so, because within two months, Richard Bona was playing with leading French musicians as Didier Lockwood and marc Ducret, as well as Manu Dibango and Salif Keita. In Paris, Richard entered a musical school, and during 7 years, he improved his writing skills. He immersed himself in the work of Miles Davis, Chat Baker and Ben Webster. Then he created a band 'Point Cardinale'
The next big geographical and professional move in Richard's career happened on the guitarist Mike Stern's advice, who told him to catch his luck and go to New-York. That is what Richard did in 1995. At that time, we can say he was as much embarrassed as with the missing guitar strings in Cameroon and the temperature on his arrival in France, because he didn't know any English. But an American flutist offered him a place to stay in the beginning, made all the necessary introduction, and Richard's music and talent spoke for him. Our virtuoso did not cope so bad.
To start with, he recorded the album 'My people' with Joe Zawinul and went on a world tour with him. Back to New-York, he carried on leading a busy musician's life, as he was demanded to play in clubs. Then he met Harry Belafonte. Their first contact was over the phone. Richard, who just arrived in the United States, didn't know the guy and that surprised Harry very much. But Richard Bona wasn't that easily impressed and with his now well-known sense of humour, he replied 'What about you? Do you know Richard Bona? Do you think you're Jesus-Christ or something?' Pretty bad beginning. Anyway, he ended up by being Harry's bandleader and musical director for a year and a half. After that he got to play bass guitar with the most illustrious musicians, and the list is long: Larry Coryell, Michael and Randy Brecker, Steve Gadd, Bob James, Mike Stern, Pat Metheny, Georges Benson, Bobby mc Ferrin, Brandford Marsalis, Sadao watanabe (as a producer) and Chaka Khan. He got signed by Columbia in late 1998. That's when he recorded the first album under his own name, 'Scenes from my life', released in 1999. This multifaceted record of course features his song writing skills and his instrumental prowess, but also his rich, expressing, and haunting voice… He is said to be 'one of the best bassists on the planet' in the reviews.
