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Richard's
career as a musician began when he was a mere child in his home
country of Cameroon. It goes back to a day someone played a
balafon in the family home, the sound of which Richard found
very comforting. Richard then constructed and played his own
balafon, and also flutes and percussion instruments, and even
a 12-string guitar! He also frequently sang in the village church
at various ceremonies with his family. A few years later Richard
began work at as a musician in the city of Douala, mostly concentrating
on guitar playing on a rented instrument. This led to him being
hired to assemble a band to play at a new jazz club in a local
hotel. Not knowing much about jazz was no deterrent: Richard
learnt to play all the available instruments and to read and
write music. The most influential piece of music that Richard
heard at that time was by electric bass guitarist Jaco Pastorius:
as soon as he heard it he began to play bass in that way and
went on to explore both fusion and traditional styles.
At the age of 22 Richard left Cameroon
for Paris and met up with leading French musicians as well as
top African musicians based there like Manu Dibango and Salif
Keita. He stayed there for seven years and then had an invitation
to visit New York - the intended 4-day stay extended to two
weeks and he and his music were so well received that he decided
to be based there as from 1995. Whilst in New York Richard worked
with many other musicians, went on a world tour with Joe Zawinul
and in 1999 recorded his debut album Scenes from my
Life. The songs on that album do indeed
describe scenes from Richard's life, mostly in Douala language.
Richard opened Manu
Dibango's performance at The Barbican, London, in April
2001. Richard has played during the 2001 and 2003 London Jazz
Festivals.
In 2001 he had a 5-night residency
at the Pizza
Express Jazz Club
(see
photo above) and took part in a Radio 3 broadcast. In
2002 Richard was on a year-long world tour as vocalist
with Pat
Matheny's band. He is a truly great live performer with a stunning
voice, leaving you entertained and
awe-inspired.
Richard's second album, Reverence,
was released in 2001. With his first and |
photo:
© Esther
Wanjie
second
albums
the printed notes give a short description
in English of what each track is about.
Richard's
third album is entitled Munia (The Tale), and it was
released in 2003. One track, 'Kalabancoro', features Salif
Keita. Cameroonian Coco Mbassi
is among the backing vocalists on many of the tracks.
Richard was part of an a-capella trio project with Lokua Kanza
and Gerald Toto in 2004, the resulting CD is Toto Bona Lokua
on the 'No Format' label. In 2006 Richard recordedTiki,
with guests John Legend, Susheela Raman and Djavan. Tiki
was nominated for an award in the 49th Grammy Awards in the
category "Contemporary World Music Album". On The
Ten Shades of Blues (2009) Richard includes more musicians
with great sounds including Niladiri Kumar on sitar and Bailo
Baa on fula flutes. The song 'Mbemba Mama' is for all mothers,
especially Richard's own!
A documentary DVD African Tale (2005)
gives an intimate insight into Richard's background, work and
his family as well as concert footage. Herbie Hancock, Manu
Dibango and many others describe his personality and musicianship.
Richard has a great looking website called Bonatology.
As the sub-title of the opening track on Munia says,
"Welcome to my Universe": the site does indeed show
Richard's universe with lots of features where you can keep
up to date with his tours etc. Here's a link: Bonatology
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Richard
Bona