Richard Bona was born in Minta, in eastern Cameroon, on 28 October 1967. Growing up in a family of musicians (his grandfather was a griot and percussionist and his mother a singer), it was not long before he developed his own taste for music. Legend has it Richard was a capricious child, given to fits of crying, but a radical transformation occurred the day a group of musicians spent a day in the family home. Richard, who was just four at the time, was transfixed by the sound of the balafon. Realising this was an effective way of drying his grandson's tears, Richard's grandfather went out and bought him a balafon of his own.

By the age of 11, Richard moved with his father who had just found a job as a lorry driver in Douala, the economic capital of Cameroon. This earned him the nickname of Fantômas at school for his friends barely saw him in the classroom, the budding young musician preferring to spend his days practising on his self-made instruments. At night Richard was generally to be found jamming with his school supervisor (who was none other than modern bikutsi king, Messi Martin). More often than not the pair would meet up in a local nightclub rather than at school. A few months later, Richard began taking home his first wage packets as a musician and the first thing he saved up to buy was... a real guitar.

1980 proved to be something of a turning-point in the young musician's career, marking as it did the moment when Bona met an ex-patriot Frenchman who owned a jazz club. The latter offered what appeared to be a phenomenal sum to the boy from Minta if he could get together a jazz band and start playing at the club within a few weeks. Richard, who had never even heard of jazz, spent days and nights listening to any jazz record he could lay his hands on. And thus it was that he discovered the work of Weather Report's bass-player, Jaco Pastorius. Enthralled by Pastorius's speed and virtuosity, young Bona decided to reinvent himself as a bass-player.

At the age of 22, Bona moved to Europe where he studied at the Düsseldorf Music Institute in Germany. After this, he moved on to Paris where he enrolled at another music college to learn the standard repertoire. But Bona soon revived his childhood habit of skipping school, preferring to replace theory lessons with real experience, playing on the Paris jazz circuit. The young Cameroonian musician was soon invited to join the Eric Le Lann Quintet, with whom he toured west and north Africa and recorded a live album. Meanwhile, Bona was also busy accompanying many other big music names based in the French capital, playing with the likes of Jacques Higelin, Mario Canonge, Didier Lockwood and "Makossa Man" Manu Dibango.

Bona's burgeoning Parisian career came to an abrupt halt, however, when the French authorities refused to renew his work papers, under the pretext that 1,604 (!) French bass-players were already out of work. Disappointed but undeterred in his musical ambitions, Bona decided to try his luck in the U.S. instead. He set up base in New York and the cosmopolitan city, which embraced his talent, has now become his full-time home.

Bona went on to become a regular on the New York jazz scene, appearing in all the local clubs. His talent was soon spotted by Jake Holmes (the songwriter responsible for many of American crooner Harry Belafonte's greatest hits). Holmes immediately offered Bona a job as musical director on Belafonte's shows. And Bona's collaborations with American stars did not end there, either. The young prodigy from Minta was soon working with everyone from Paul Simon and Harry Connick Jr. to Queen Latifah and Chaka Khan, not to mention Tito Puente, George Benson, Herbie Hancock and Bobby Mc Ferrin. Working with musicians from a broad range of backgrounds, and adapting himself to different styles with extraordinary ease, Bona soon found himself playing everything from jazz and salsa to country & western!

Many of the 1,604 unemployed bass-players in France must envy such a track record and there is little doubt that the French authorities' refusal to renew Bona's carte de séjour ended up giving him the biggest break of his career.

Bona's talent was soon spotted by sax star Brandford Marsalis who got him signed to the Columbia Jazz label. Thus it was that Bona finally went into the studio to record his debut album, "Scenes of My Life", released in 1999. The album, which revealed Bona's gift for melody, featured a catchy fusion of jazz, pop and African rhythms. In his songwriting Bona evoked personal themes such as his faith in Jesus and the emotions he had experienced while awaiting the birth of his child. He also raised international issues such as the fate of street kids in Romania.

Bona's second album, "Révérence", featured collaborations with several prestigious guest stars including guitarist Pat Metheny and saxophonist Michael Brecker. This album found the Cameroonian musician going back to his roots and seeking inspiration in traditional African rhythms. Once again, song themes veered between international issues (such as the destruction of rainforests and the problem of arranged marriages in Africa) and personal memories (such as his childhood growing up in Cameroon and the local train he used to catch to go to the football field). In November 2001, Bona performed songs from the new album at a concert at legendary Paris club Le New Morning. As has become his habit, the singer kicked his concert off with a song dedicated to his late mother.

Fans were disappointed when Bona announced that his next album was to be a purely instrumental affair. But, fortunately, he reneged on that decision, adding vocals on his third album, "Munia - The Tale", released in 2003. This album came out on a new label, Bona having fallen out with his previous record company who wanted him to go more "middle-of-the-road" and "do Sting-style songs in the mode of "I’m An African in New York"." Instead, "Munia" was imbued with Bona's protest spirit and full of songs in which he stood up for the world's weak and dispossessed. Highlights of the album include "Kalabancoro", "le rejet et l’oubli" (featuring guest vocals by Salif Keita) and "Painting a Wish" (an instrumental tribute to Miles Davis). In November 2003, Richard Bona brought the house down in Paris, performing two memorable concerts at La Cigale.

Richard Bona has always refused to limit himself to any one style or musical 'school.' And in 2004 he branched out in a new direction once again, teaming up with Congolese star Lokua Kanza and the Antillais singer and composer Gérald Toto. The trio's collective album, "Toto, Bona, Lokua", was released on the appropriately named No Format label in April 2004. Bona wrote four songs on the album.

On 7 May 2004, Bona went on to win critical recognition at the "Victoires de Jazz" awards where he walked off with the trophy for "Best International Artist of 2003." This award confirmed his status as one of the rare African artists to have established a major reputation on the international music scene.

These days, the former child prodigy from Minta has earned his place in the pantheon of international African music stars.

Bona went on to hit the road with Lokua Kanza and Gérald Toto, taking the "Toto Bona Kanza Tour" across France and treating music fans to a prolongation of the work the trio had done in the studio. In the autumn of 2004, Bona hit the road once again, but this time fronting his own group for a series of dates in France and the Netherlands. He remained in Europe after the tour to accompany the guitarist Mike Stern (renowned for playing with Miles Davis alongside Marcus Miller, Bill Evans and Mino Cinelu) and also guested on the Japanese guitarist Kazumi Watanabe's album "Mo Bop 2." The pair then embarked upon a tour of Japan together.

At the beginning of 2005, Bona put in a guest appearance on Mario Canonge's album "Rhyzome" and also contributed to the soundtrack of Pascal Plisson's film "Massaï, les guerriers de la pluie." He went on to join the group Steps Ahead (a reformed version of the famous jazz-fusion band from the early 80s), playing with Bill Evans (replacing Michael Brecker), Mike Stern and Mike Mainieri.

In New York, where he continued to live and work, Bona was given a professorship at New York University, teaching bass at the prestigious institution.

In November 2005, Richard Bona released a fourth solo album entitled "Tiki" ("treasure" in the Cameroonian dialect of Douala). The bassist headed off to record part of his new album in Brazil, in a studio not far from Salvador de Bahia. "Tiki" not only integrated Brazilian influences on several tracks, but a local Brazilian singer by the name of Djavan also guested on the song "Manyaka O Brasil." True to his philosophy of fusing musical and cultural influences in his work, Bona also invited world music star Susheela Raman to add her smooth, sultry vocals on the title track. Meanwhile, all fourteen tracks on "Tiki" boldly straddled musical borders, flirting with jazz as well as world sounds. On 19 December 2005, Richard Bona packed out the legendary Olympia in Paris to full capacity.

Bona spent most of the following year on the road, dashing between airports and hotel rooms as he toured extensively worldwide. In January 2006 he performed in New York, then he headed off to Japan in February and Europe in March before touring the French West Indies and Ivory Coast in April. After completing a circuit of South America (including seven dates in Brazil) in June, the indefatigable bassist returned to perform in Europe before heading off to the U.S. where he performed various dates up until the end of the year.

Bona remained much in demand as a guest artist and in January 2007 he joined the Belgian singer Maurane in the studio, providing guest vocals and playing guitar, bass and percussion on "Mousse mousse bébé" (a track featured on Maurane's album "Si Aujourd'hui.") In February 2007, "Tiki" won Bona a nomination at the Grammy Awards in the "Best contemporary world music" category. Meanwhile, Bona continued his hectic tour schedule throughout most of 2007, playing concert dates in Japan (February), Indonesia (March), Russia, Georgia, Siberia and Germany (in April) then the U.S. in June.

On 11 & 12 July 2007, the bassist and his group performed a special show on the river Danube, in Hungary. Playing on board the A 38 (a Ukrainian transport boat that had been revamped as a concert venue), they recorded a live DVD before assuring another extensive series of concerts across Europe, then New York. In December 2007, Bona and his group continued their intensive tour programme, performing in Uruguay, Argentina, then Brazil. Somehow, Bona still managed to find time to collaborate on various concerts and albums with other artists putting in an appearance, for instance, on saxophonist Bill Evans' album "The Other Side of Something." 

The live DVD Bona and his group made aboard the A 38 in Hungary was released in March 2008 together with the first live album of the Cameroonian's career. The album was entitled "Bona Makes You Sweat" - a reminder, if any were needed, that Richard Bona remains first and foremost a live showman committed to giving his all on stage! The live album featured eight tracks including a mammoth 13-minute Latin extravaganza ("Engingilaye & Te Dikalo") and an a cappella song ("Samaouma") which proved the bassist can sing every bit as well as he plays bass.

April 2008