Bona on Bass

Currently appearing with the Mike Stern Band, Bona also fronts his own group as both bassist and singer. His fifth and current CD, Ten Shades of Blues (Decca), explores the genre in variant mutations, certifying its pan-idiom identity with influences of rhythm’n’blues, bluegrass, traditional African, pop-soul and jazz. “Music doesn’t have a frontier,” he says. 

Bona and his band will perform on the main stage at the Syracuse Jazz Fest on Friday, June 25, at 8 p.m.

Q: What’s in the band you will bring and what music will you play at Jazz Fest?

A: I’m bringing a six piece band, a drummer, guitar, percussion, saxophone, trombone and keyboards. I play bass and sing. The songs will be a mix of the five records that I have put out. We play all the best songs, all the heat! We’re glad to be coming to Syracuse, and we’re going to have a wonderful show.

Q: What kind of music did you listen to growing up in Cameroon?

A: I grew up in a very tiny village, so I listened to my grandfather, my mother, my uncles who were all musicians, church musicians. So I grew up listening to African gospel and traditional music. When my father moved to the city I started listening to American music, jazz music. I was 14 then. I was playing traditional music on guitar and organ. Then I met this French guy who had a lot of jazz records. So I went to listen to them and the first one I heard was {the late bassist} Jaco Pastorius playing a Charlie Parker song and I fell in love with it. Then I decided to play bass. That was my introduction to jazz music.

Q: You once made your own guitar using bicycle brake cables for strings. Tell me about that. 

A: Where I grew up there was no music shop, so if you wanted to play an instrument you had to build it. When I decided to play guitar I had to build it, just like my grandfather built his own instruments. But I couldn’t find strings so I used {strings from} a fishing net. They were really strong but they didn’t have a good resonance, then I found brake cables had a beautiful resonance and they lasted longer. It played well enough. We didn’t have to plug into an amp, we all played acoustically.

Q: You have played with many prominent, progressive jazz musicians. What is the appeal of that kind of music to you?

A: I was so lucky. When I got to New York I knew this music. I listened to this growing up. From Jaco Pastorius to Weather Report to the Brecker Brothers to Larry Coryell to Pat Metheny, Joe Zawinul. It was an easy move for me. I knew the book of these musicians.

Q: How has the music of Joe Zawinul and Jaco Pastorius influenced your playing?

A: Oh man! Jaco first. From Jaco I discovered the band Weather Report and from there {pianist and composer} Joe Zawinul. Jaco’s articulation on the bass, I never heard anything like that before. And the way he played melody—he had life! When I listened to him I heard something new and something hot and I felt like I was connected to it. And Joe Zawinul, that’s the greatest musician I ever played with, a master. He and {saxophonist} Michael Brecker, they’re the top of the list. I was playing in the basement of a hotel where Joe was staying and he came down. I had a solo gig there. He came to the bar after the set and said, “Great, man, nice. I’m Joe Zawinul.” Wow! If I knew this guy was in the room I couldn’t play. He told me he was going to hire me. I played with him two years and cut three albums.

Q: Why do you use a five-string bass?

A: After my years of playing like Jaco I started to lift my own voice out of the music. When I sing I like to hear the low end surrounding my singing, supporting my voice. I love to hear the bass complementing the melody.

Q: What does the term “world music” mean to you?

A: There’s a lot of discrimination happening in music. I don’t really pay attention to it. When I sing they call it African singing or African pop. When I make a record they put it in world music. It’s not really important. 

Q: What did you have in mind when you put your latest CD, Ten Shades of Blues,

together?

A: I look again at how the media picture the blues. When people picture the blues they think of Africa and the delta of the Mississippi, right? But when people think of Nashville, they call it country. But when you listen to country, if you go by the scale, it’s blues music. And the banjo, it’s an African instrument that Africans introduced to America but they don’t call it blues music. Indian musicians play the blues. When you go by the scale you will hear the blues in flamenco, in gypsy music, in Irish music. I wanted to show how sophisticated and diverse the blues is. When you listen to the first track (“Take One”) I just took the blues scale and harmonized it, to make it a little slick, but not in a way that people will recognize as the blues. I want people to listen to my music and think. When you’re thinking, you’re moving forward.