Album review

Richard Bona

The Ten Shades of Blues

Paris 

21/10/2009 - 

Richard Bona, the virtuoso bassist from Cameroon is back in the news with The Ten Shades of Blues. This brilliant road-movie of an album roams across the global landscape, tracing the route of the blues across Africa, Asia, and America.

Richard Bona kicks off his fifth solo album with a surprise opener, serving up 52 seconds of pure 'a cappella' blues sung without lyrics (Take One.) On ensuing tracks, the versatile bassist goes on to demonstrate his hypothesis that there are ten different nuances, ten different ways of playing the blues. And in the process he offers irrefutable proof that the blues is a universal language which people from all countries can relate to.

The Ten Shades of Blues covers an impressive amount of mileage, Bona beginning his journey on the streets of New Delhi with an incantation to the goddess Shiva (Shiva Mantra), then hurrying listeners on to the hustle and bustle of New York. After an atmospheric break in the Sahel desert he pushes on to Nashville before rounding his trip off in Cameroon. Proving his constant capacity for innovation, Bona sometimes travels back and forth within a single track. On Esukudu, for instance, listeners are whisked between Brazil and the Sahel with hints of jazz and film music in between.

Bona puts his own inimitable stamp on The Ten Shades of Blues, combining his signature velvet vocals with audacious arrangements and juicy basslines. And as this fifth album functions as a blues road movie, it is inevitable it should feature musicians Bona has met along the way. Thus, Franck Macomb (who guested on Bona's debut album) puts in an appearance as does the flautist Bailo Baa (from his third album, Munia: The Tale) together with a group of Indian musicians Bona met on tour.

The Ten Shades of Blues also stands as a testament to Bona's own journey in life, recounting the tale of an "African cowboy" who has travelled from his native Cameroon to his adoptive U.S., garnering precious musical experience at each port of call. The album ends with Camer Secrets (the Secrets of Cameroon), a haunting track sung in Duala which hints that there is even more to this brilliant bassist, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist than meets the eye.

Richard Bona The Ten Shades Of Blues (Universal Music Jazz France) 2009

Current European tour dates include a concert at Le Bataclan, Paris, on 21 November.

Eglantine  Chabasseur

Translation : Julie  Street