Richard Bona

Bona Pinder Yayumayalolo (born on October 28, 1967), also known as Richard Bona, is a Cameroon-born American bass player mostly known for his stint as a session musician with the likes of Joe Zawinul, Regina Carter, and Bob James. Born into a humble family of musicians, Bona developed a love for music from a young age, sometimes going as far as building his own instruments. At the age of 13, Bona discovered jazz music and bass virtuoso Jaco Pastorius, which inspired him to switch to the four-stringed instrument. In 1989, when Bona was just 22, he moved to Europe to further develop his music studies, finally settling down in France. While living there, he made the rounds in the city’s underground jazz clubs, playing with fellow expats Manu Dibango and Salif Keita. Shortly after, he relocated to New York, where he started working as a top-tier studio musician for Branford Marsalis, Bobby McFerrin, and Steve Gadd. Bona made his studio debut with Scenes from My Life (1999), which combined jazz with music from his native Cameroon. After a couple of years of extensive touring, most notably with legendary jazz guitarist Pat Metheny, Bona released Toto Bona Lokua (2004), a collaboration with French multi-instrumentalist Gerald Toto and Congolese singer-songwriter Lokua Kanza that peaked at Number 6 on Billboard’s Top World Albums chart. Two years later, Tiki (2006), which featured guest appearances by Susheela Raman, Djavan, and John Legend, was nominated for Best Contemporary World Music Album at the Grammy Awards in 2007. In the following years, Bona received the Antonio Carlos Jobim Award at the Montreal International Jazz Festival and released Bonafied (2013), which was certified gold in Poland after selling 10,000 copies. The Quincy Jones-produced Heritage (2016) followed, in which Bona explored salsa and son cubano backed by five-piece ensemble Mandekan Cubano.

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