INTERVIEW: Richard Bona, Faithful to Study of Life, Faithful to Music

Monday May 09, 2011

from http://news.err.ee

Faithful to Study of Life, Faithful to Music
By:Edu Llado Vila

“Cameroonian Richard Bona is currently one of the most internationally celebrated jazz bassists and vocalists. Bona was one of the performers chosen for the finale of Tallinn’s Jazzkaar on April 30. This is the conversation ERR News held with him some minutes before his concert.”

Your last album is titled “The Ten Shades of Blues.” Sounds like you’re trying to find different approaches to the blues scenario…
Well, my aim was to do with how sophisticated the world of blues is and how diverse it can be. People often think blues only belongs to Africa, but that’s not true, because you can listen to it in every place in the world. You can hear blues in Irish music, in Indian music, in flamenco, in gipsy music… I think it’s one of the most diverse forms of music because blues is everywhere. I wanted to make a record about it and that’s why I went to India, Africa, Nashville, to show people how sophisticated and diverse blues is.

So I guess there has been a lot of research behind that last album.
There has been research in terms of traveling, because I don’t need the kind of research a scientist would do. My own research is to travel, meet people, listen and capture a frame or a sound.

Is traveling your way of working as a musician? Is this how you catch inspiration?
I’d say my way of working mostly arises from a will of learning. Because music for me is a study of life which never ends. I love that way and I want to keep going that way. Because I know that I don’t know, the more I know, the less I know.

To read the full interview click here

African Cowboy	5:07	Richard Bona
Good Times	4:34	Richard Bona

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