Bona Fide Brilliance
- The Superstar Bassist Talks To Mike Flynn
Richard Bona is a confident young man. An easy-going native Cameroonian
who's lived in Paris, and now New York, Richard is one of the hottest
bass players on the planet right now playing with everyone from Harry
Belafonte to the late Tito Puente, to Pat Metheny - but this isn't why he's so self assured.
No, his confidence is practically without ego, it's more borne of the
almost feted, pre-destined path he's followed since childhood,
Mike Flynn went to investigate further. Visting London for
another week's residency, this time at Pizza Express (it was Ronnie Scott's
last year), Bona's been thrilling crowds with his spellbinding blend
of Afro-jazz-world music.
Here's a video that was shot for Universal Jazz in 2004 with Richard playing at Pizza Express in London - the opening song is his amazing version of 'Liberty City' which then morphs into Birdland then a solo, then Black Market - phew!
Fuelled primarily by his searching, sensitive bass playing, he also
sings and plays guitar with the deftness of musical veteran twice his
age. His innate musicality sees him leap-frog from five-string fretted
bass laying down a soft Latin pulse, to some pounding Jaco Pastorius-inspired
lines on his fretless. His version of 'Liberty City' brings Pastorius's
music to life in an unnervingly emotional way, did Jaco sound this good?
However, Bona's agenda is bigger and wider than becoming another Jaco
clone, or another bass hero with more technique than musicality - this
man has learnt the hard way. As a youth, his only collateral was a driving
passion to learn music, with money and instruments both in short supply.
His passion and resourcefulness saw him hanging around the local bicycle
shop grabbing spare brake cables to make his own strings for his equally
home-made guitar, but this was merely a test of his commitment to music,
one that's since paid off tenfold. Sitting in the dimly lit basement
of Pizza Express we chat about the turning points of his life. Bona speaks
with a soft Parisian lilt, sitting the loose-shouldered slouch of a man
in his element, his eyes a bright and passionate accompaniment to his
continually gesturing hands. He picks up on how his early experiences
were more a blessing in disguise. "Yeah, but if I was growing up
here it would be the same, because when it's a passion for you find a
way to do it! I just used to look at someone playing the guitar 'cos
I didn't have any guitar, and because he couldn't give me his guitar
- so I had to remember the chord by seeing him playing. And maybe I see
a guitar maybe three or four months later, but I have to remember all
the things this guy did on the guitar. It's like I have a great uncle
who went blind, who's a blind man now today, he told me, 'you guys you
can see, but you can't use your ears, man!' He said 'when I lost my eyes,
oh man, my ears became my eyes!' Unbelievable! He developed a sense of
touch, smell, taste, which we don't use. And the same thing happened
to me because I didn't have any instruments. I had my first bass, my
own guitar, when I was 17 years old! I mean my own guitar, because otherwise
every time I used to be myself or playing on someone else's instrument."
Bona's reputation and veracious musical achievements soon created a
buzz about him back home, which afforded him a dream opportunity. A local
club owner was looking to start promoting jazz in Cameroon, which in
Bona's own words; "I was like, this guy is crazy", but this
offer was serious, and the club owner also introduced Richard to jazz
by loaning him 400 LPs. The first one he happened to place on the turntable
was to be another moment of destiny: it was Jaco Pastorius's eponymous
debut. "I picked one album out of 400 albums, and I took 'Portrait
Of Tracy' and I listened to the bass and went WOW! And I was a guitar
player at that time, and then I went from guitar to bass. Straightaway.
When you love something, especially something about music, because music
is so magical, it doesn't matter how hard is the line, or whatever, if
you love it you play it. Just because you want to hear yourself playing
it you play the song, and then nothing is hard anymore." His seemingly
effortless musicianship and sunny stage presence are natural traits developed
over years of playing live, but his records are determinably not showcases
for his outstanding bass playing - a solo bass CD is not on the cards. "I
don't visualise my work just as a bass player, I see my work as music.
I played guitar before even playing bass, I used play a lot of guitar
and a lot of percussion. So that's the direction that I want to take,
I want to keep that up and if I have a good occasion to put a bass album
out I will do it, but it's not my priority. People can see me play on
the stage. I get bored when I hear bass, only bass, I can't listen to
a whole album just listening to just bass. I love changes you know, I
love colours and I see music as colours. That's how I write my songs
and for years I was so focused on the bass I forgot completely that I
was a singer too. Because I grew up singing every night making people
dance every night, and I forgot. So I wanted to go back using the experience
I have playing bass and mix it together with my background and put something
together with that. I love danger in music - I love to go in a place
where I'm not familiar with, I'm familiar with the bass - I can play
the bass anytime! You know in the morning - in my bed - so I love to
experience some other stuff."
Jaco Pastorius may have reshaped the way the bass functions in music,
taking it into the realms of the solo flights of the tenor saxophone.
But it was his partnership with jazz keyboard genius Joe Zawinul that
became one of jazz's most talked about pairings of the '70s - their nightly
sparring on stage nothing short of jaw dropping. So when Richard got
a call from this jazz-fusion legend it was just another extraordinary,
ordinary day in his career, one that almost floored him. Residing in
Paris at the time, Bona was obviously overjoyed at the prospect of working
with his idol. He picks up the story. "Oh, it was great! Zawinul
was one of my heroes! He is still. I met him in Paris, and the first
time he called me on the phone I thought it was a friend making a joke!
Because I have this friend of mine, Paco Sery, a drummer, and we went
to New York and we did his demo, and I was playing on his demo tape.
And then he went New York and Joe listened to the demo and asked him
'who is the bass player playing on the record?' and he gave him [Paco]
my phone number. And then Joe called one day, he was in New York, telling
me 'I'm coming to Paris, I would love you to come and have a jam with
us, with the syndicate'. So he'd called me and I thought it was a friend
so I was like 'who's doing this bullshit?' and I hang up because I was
out of my head, 'yeah right you're serious? I'm walking!' He was like,
'I am Joe Zawinul!' [Laughs] So he called back, and actually I listened
to the accent and I'm like, this is not a French accent! And I don't
have a friend who'd call back if I'd hung up, so he has my phone number.
'Paco Sere came to New York, he's playing with me and I'm coming to Paris
at the Passage Du Nord Ouest', and I knew he was coming, so I was like
'OK'. He said 'I would love you to come and play with us' and I said
'yes I would love to man!' And I had a concert that night and I had to
cancel it, my own gig with my own band. So I went there and nobody was
there on time for the soundcheck. The guy that fixes the plug gave me
just a direct box, I was like hey, I'll do a gig! So I went on stage
playing with them, and I still have the tape, I still have the tape." On
the question of Zawinul enlightening him further on Weather Report's
music, Bona proved to be more of an expert than his mentor, "I certainly
know that music better than he does! 'Cos I listened to that music so
much, and Joe doesn't listen to his music! [Laughs] I know all the songs
from the top, to all the solos and he doesn't know it all. So sometimes
when we're on stage, I did a tour of duets with him this summer, a short
tour just for two weeks, and it's great playing with him, seriously.
He's one of my favourites and a hero forever. I learned so much, and
I'm still learning from him. The tour of duets I did I came back with
so much to do, I mean so much! Not in terms of technique, just in terms
of music, and that's the hard part. Suddenly you get to the level where
it's not technique anymore, because I can basically play any phrase I
hear [sings phrase playing invisible bass], any phrase you can hear you
can play, but there's something else, it's up there, and that guy has
it! I feel really great for playing with this guy."
It's hard to convey just how emphatic Bona's live performance is - especially
as in comparison to his album, the live act is much more multi-faceted
- the crowd responding with unreserved warmth. Trying to pigeonhole Bona
though is a pointless exercise, as his curiosity to explore every aspect
of his potential will most likely see him work in as many musical spheres
as possible. He elaborates, "I listen to every kind of music. That's
what opens you and gives that ability to play other different styles
of music, because of listening. I turned a certain point where technically
it's not technique anymore, because it's how you feel, how you learn,
'oh I'm gonna learn some Latin music' [hums Latin bass line], that's
how you find music. You see the technique a classical musician has, this
is one of the most difficult to accomplish. In classical music the technique
is amazing but the fact that they don't listen to jazz, they've never
been interested in jazz, and they can't even improvise! It's not because
technically they can't, it's just because they never hear, never get
familiar with that kind of music or listen to that music, and I listen
to all kinds of music. I enjoy listening to all kinds of music, hip hop,
everything, you know, jazz to African music, Middle Eastern. What means
jazz man? Jazz is a free thing! Jazz is a celebration of life! A celebration
of life means music! There are no barriers, just music. As soon as people
start putting up barriers for me, it's not music."
