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Richard Bona

Célébrités du Cameroun

Musique

Richard Bona

Musician

RichardBona1
Date de Naissance:
1967-10-28
Lieu de Naissance:
Minta, Cameroon

Richard(Pinder Yayumayalolo)Bona(born October 28, 1967 in Minta, Cameroon) is a jazz bassist and musician. His actual African name, as he said during a live performance with Bobby McFerrin in Montreal, is Bona Pinder Yayumayalolo.

Destined for stardom, Bona was born into a family of musicians, which enabled him to start moulding his talent from a young age. His grandfather, a griot, was a West African singer of praise, storyteller and percussionist, and his mother was a singer.

At the tender age four, Bona started to play the balafon. A year later he began performing at his village church. Bona didn’t have the luxury of being able to afford his own instruments but instead would make his own flutes and guitars with cords strung over an old motorcycle tank.

It didn’t take long for his talent to start turning heads and was often invited to perform at festivals and ceremonies. At 11-years-old Bona began learning to play the guitar and three years later he assembled his first ensemble for a French jazz club in Douala.

It was there he discovered his passion for jazz music, in particular that of Jaco Pastorius, which inspired Bona to switch his focus to the electric bass. He immigrated to Germany at 22 to study music in Düsseldorf, soon relocating to France, where he furthered his studies in music. While in France, he regularly played in various jazz clubs, sometimes with players such as Manu Dibango, Salif Keita, Jacques Higelin and Didier Lockwood.

In 1998, Richard was the Musical Director on Harry Belafonte's European Tour. His debut solo album, Scenes from My Life, was released in 1999. He has also been prominently featured in Jaco Pastorius Big Band albums, as well as many other albums by various top-tier jazz musicians.

In 2002, Bona went on a world tour with the Pat Metheny Group as a percussionist/vocalist. In 2005 Bona released his fourth solo album Tiki, which included a collaboration with John Legend on one track, entitled "Please Don't Stop."

The now New York-based musician plays bass guitar with artists like Joe Zawinul, Larry Coryell, Michael and Randy Brecker, Mike Stern, George Benson, Branford Marsalis, Chaka Khan, Bobby McFerrin, and Steve Gadd.