Richard Bona 'Bona Makes You Sweat' album

Cameroonian bassist Richard Bona has long been regarded as a peerless virtuoso of the electric four-stringed instrument; the natural heir to the bass throne of the late, great Jaco Pastorius. Indeed, Bass Player magazine featured the supremely gifted bassist in a 1999 article titled “The African Jaco.” Former employer Joe Zawinul hailed his astonishing facility on the electric bass during Bona’s stint in the ‘90s with his fusion juggernaut, the Zawinul Syndicate, and other musical heavyweights like Pat Metheny, George Benson, Larry Coryell, Mike Stern, Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea have sung his praises. But Bona’s astonishing bass prowess only hints at the full scope of his talents. An enchanting singer-songwriter with a heavenly voice, he is also a formidable bandleader with an engaging stage presence and a knack for entertaining audiences all over the world. Those qualities are in full effect on Bona Makes You Sweat, his exhilarating new live CD on Decca and followup to 2006’s Grammy-nominated Tiki.

“I just love being on stage,” says the multi-talented bandleader. “And luckily, it’s kind of contagious for the audience to get what I’m trying to give out. They’re getting the disease. They’re getting hit by the vibe and they give us back those vibes on stage. And that’s what you hear on the CD.”

Recorded at the club A38 in Budapest, Hungary, this live document captures all the enthusiasm that Bona and his potent road crew of keyboardist Etienne Stadwijk, trumpeter Taylor Haskins, guitarist John Caban, percussionist Samuel Torres and drummer Ernesto Simpson generate in their live shows. As Bona explains, “When we are on tour, after each concert I always get to meet fans. And one of the things that I kept hearing from fans in every country that we played was, ‘Man, when are you going to record a live CD or DVD of your show?’ And I always thought it was too bad that I didn’t have something like that to give them. So that’s where the idea came to finally record one of our live shows.”

Bona explains that during the band’s seven-week tour last summer, he was unaware of which night was actually being recorded for Bona Makes You Sweat. “I’m not really a fan of recording a live show because to me you have to be totally in the show, you can’t be distracted by anything. I don’t want to go on stage thinking, ‘I’m recording this one tonight.’ So I told my board guy, ‘You know what? Don’t tell me which one you’re going to record.’ He could’ve chosen Paris or London or any number of cities, but he picked Budapest without telling me in advance. And that’s the one that’s on the record, and it sounds good. I remember that show was a standing audience. No seats or anything. So these people were dancing to a lot of the songs, and I think you can hear that wild energy on the record. I also think I would’ve been stressed if I knew, ‘This is a show that we are going to record. This is the evening.’ I don’t want to have that in my thinking when I hit the stage.”

From the opening track to the exhilarating closer, you can feel the excitement of the live show and hear the immediate chemistry of the band on Bona Makes You Sweat. Taking a cue from one of his key mentors, Harry Belafonte, Bona has fashioned a dynamic set on this live recording that puts a premium on entertainment. “Harry is like one of the masters when it comes to handling the stage,” he says. “I spent 18 months in his band as his musical director, and during that time I learned a lot when it comes to taking care of business on stage. And as far as I’m concerned, I learned from the best. He comes from that old school, and that kind of schooling is invaluable. You can’t spend any time with Harry and not learning anything, unless you don’t want to learn.”

The renowned bassist-bandleader applies some of that old school acumen to Bona Makes You Sweat. From the buoyant, reggae-fueled opener “Engingilaye” (originally recorded on 2003’s Munia: The Tale) to the mesmerizing son montuno groove of the salsa flavored “Te Dikalo” (from 1999’s Scenes From My Life) to the catchy samba flavored “O Sen Sen Sen” (from 2006’s Tiki) and the emotionally wrenching ballad “Suninga” (from 2001’s Reverence), Bona and company exhibit a wide range of colors and expressions throughout Bona Makes You Sweat. The use of Joe Zawinul’s haunting “Indiscretions” as the intro to his infectious “Please Don’t Stop” (a piece from Tiki co-written with John Legend, and the only song he sings in English) is a fitting homage to his former Zawinul Syndicate employer, who passed away on September 11, 2007. “Joe influenced me so much,” says Bona, who played on Zawinul’s My People, World Tour and Faces & Places. “And I played his ‘Indiscretions’ as a way of honoring him. Because of Joe, a lot of musicians my age were turned onto this music. And I so lucky to play with him and learn from him. Joe will be in my thoughts, always.”

Bona’s funky slap bass showcase on “Djombwe,” sung in his native Douala, is a slamming groover that builds to a heightened crescendo before segueing smoothly to the familiar, exuberant riff from Stevie Wonder’s “I Wish.” It’s been Bona’s triumphant set-closer for years. “I’ve always been a huge fan of Stevie Wonder,” he says. “It’s music that I love and grew up with too.”

Another highlight on Bona Makes You Sweat is “Samaouma,” an astonishing approximation of an African choir that Bona achieves in concert by utilizing digital looping technology. All alone on stage, he begins with a melodic motif which he instantly “loops” in his digital pedal before adding layers of harmony lines that make the piece swell to glorious proportions until he sounds like the entire a cappela group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Says Bona, “A lot of people don’t know about the looping technology so in concert I explain a little bit about it. I tell them a story about my ‘magic machine’ and then I demonstrate how it works. And I keep adding layers until it sounds like an African choir. And for me, it’s very natural to do this. Harmony is my thing. I can take a melody and just give it another color. That’s what harmony is all about, it’s just colors. You’re just painting with sound.”

Regarding his adeptness at Latin jazz grooves, as heard on “Te Dikalo” and “O Sen Sen Sen,” Bona reminds us that Latin jazz is, in essence, African music. “The Latin vibe is coming from Africa,” he says. “Whether it’s Afro-Cuban or Afro-Caribbean, we are all related by the clave. When I was a kid, in my village people would just start dancing when they heard Cuban music, without questioning what it was. It’s not like it was something foreign to them like Russian music or some kind of Eastern European music. It relates more closely because it is at its core African music. We all share the clave. Plus, in my band I have two Latin musicians, so it makes sense to actually hang with that repertoire. And besides, the audience loves it.”

Born on October 28, 1967 in the village of Minta in eastern Cameroon, Bona grew up in a family of musicians and began to perform in public at the age of five, playing balafon and singing in the village church with his mother and four sisters. By age 11, he started playing acoustic guitar and quickly developed his impressive facility on that instrument. That same year, Richard moved with his father to Douala, the economic capital of Cameroon. The budding young musician spent his days practicing on his guitar and at night he could be found jamming with his school supervisor, modern bikutsi king Messi Martin. In 1980, Bona began a steady gig at a local jazz club in Douala, where he remained playing for nearly ten years. In 1990, he relocated to Paris and within two months was working with such renowned French musicians as Jacques Higelin, Mario Canonge, guitarist Marc Ducret and violinist Didier Lockwood as well as such African stars living in Paris as Manu “Makossa Man” Dibango and Salif Keita. By the end of 1995, Bona decided to try his luck in the United States, setting up his new base in New York City. One of the first musicians he contacted there was Joe Zawinul, whom he had met in Paris. Bona was recruited to play on one track (“Orient Express”) from Zawinul’s 1996 release, My People. He subsequently went on tour with the Zawinul Syndicate (documented on 1998’s World Tour) and in 1997 he began juggling tours with Zawinul and Harry Belafonte.

While Bona's bass virtuosity became his calling card in musicians circles, his 1999 Columbia Records debut, Scenes of My Life, revealed his gifts for melody and songwriting. His 2001 followup album, Reverence, featured collaborations with several prestigious guest stars including guitarist Pat Metheny and saxophonist Michael Brecker. That same year he was also prominently featured on guitarist Mike Stern’s Voices and also appeared on trumpeter Randy Brecker’s Hangin’ in the City. The following year he toured with vocal sensation Bobby McFerrin, playing on his 2002 recording Beyond Words. That same year he also appeared on Pat Metheny’s Speaking of Now and on Joe Zawinul’s Faces & Places.

Bona’s spirited debut on Verve, 2003’s Munia: The Tale, featured guest vocals by Salif Keita and included an instrumental tribute to Miles Davis (“Painting a Wish”). That same year he guested with the Jaco Pastorius Big Band on Word of Mouth Revisited and in 2004 he teamed up with Congolese guitarist-singer Lokua Kanza and the Martinique singer and composer Gérald Toto for a tour and recording, Toto, Bona, Lokua, which was released stateside in 2005. Bona went on to tour that year with the all-star fusion group Steps Ahead, playing alongside vibraphonist Mike Mainieri, saxophonist Bill Evans, guitarist Mike Stern and drummer Steve Smith while also doing a tour with the Pat Metheny Group as a percussionist and vocalist (documented on 2005’s The Way Up). Bona’s fourth solo album, Tiki, was released in 2006 on the Decca label. Highlights of the new album included a guest appearance by the singer Susheela Raman and the Brazilian star Djavan. That same year he also appeared on Grammy-nominated recordings, Mike Stern’s Who Let The Cats Out and the Jaco Pastorius Big Band’s Word Is Out.

Making his transition from being strictly a bass player to being a triple threat singer-songwriter-bassist has greatly increased Bona’s mass appealed, which he says is his ultimate goal as a musician. “You can really bring a joy to people by sharing your music. It’s a great power. I had to find this power in myself, and that’s not easy. It’s difficult to find the right place to be. And now I think I found my place...singing and playing my bass.” And he does both in his own inimitable fashion on Bona Makes You Sweat.

Do you also would like to share your opinion? If so, please register or login here.

Details

Popular Songs

New Songs

Richard Bona - Bona Makes You Sweat