Scenes from My Life

Artist: Richard Bona
Label: Sony
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 074646976821
EAN: 0074646976821
ASIN: B00000K29M

Release Date: 1999-08-24

Related Categories:

General

| International | Styles | Music

General

| Jazz | Styles | Music

Jazz Fusion

| Jazz | Styles | Music

General

| Pop | Styles | Music

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Tracks:

Dipita
New Bell
Souwedi Na Wegue
Eyala
Djombwe
Te Dikalo
One Minute
Muna Nyuwe
Na Mala Nde
Konda Djanea
Eyando
Messanga

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Reverence
Munia: The Tale
Tiki
Toto Bona Lokua
C'est la Vie

Customer Reviews:

Awesome.......2005-12-26

This is probably one of the best album of its kind. A fantastic blend of styles. This is the future of music

Solid debut from the best bassist in a long time........2005-09-02

Every so often an artist arrives of such unnerving talent that he deserves to be noticed, usually more often than he is. Such is the case with Richard Bona, bassist, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, one-time music director for Harry Belafonte and Joe Zawinul sideman. "Scenes from My Life" is his debut album, stepping out of the shadow of those fine artists he's worked with.

Being an electric bass player in jazz means the inevitable comparisons to Jaco Pastorius need to be dealt with-- while many great bass players have been considered the heir-apparent to Jaco's legacy, I'd argue that Bona is in many ways the best bassist since Jaco. His playing is fluid, smooth, and subtle-- what made Jaco great to me, beyond his stunning talent was his ability to play subtlely. More importantly, he's his own man as a bassist-- Jaco's influence is clear, but there's no mistaking Bona's playing. Granted, Jaco always had the bass mixed way in front, and if there's a complaint to be made about "Scenes From My Life", it's that the bass is not mixed up front. His playing is sublime and really should be heard more clearly (this is a problem that is not replicated on later albums where the mix is much more bass-centric).

Sung largely in Bona's native tongue (I don't have the liner notes in front of me, but I believe the language is called duala, native to people of the Camaroon), with one exception sung in English, the songs cover a number of jazz, rock, pop and funk moods. As a vocalist, Bona's high tenor is agile enough to carry a ballad with delicacy and sensitivity and move on a funk piece. One problem though is that the mix makes few adjustments for different moods of pieces, this causes parts of the album to sort of blend together into a "background music" mode, and sometimes midtempo seems to rule.

Even in this environment, there's quite a few standout cuts here-- the gentle, groove based opener "Dipita", lovely piano-and-bass ballad "Eyala" (where Bona's bass playing, while terribly low in the mix is as Jaco-ish as it gets), funk number "Djombwe" (betraying a Stanley Clarke influence in the slap-and-pop bassline) English sung pop piece "One Minute", filled with arrangement subtleties and a fantastic bassline and strings-and-vocals "Muna Nyuwe", where Bona's vocal is filled with mournfulness and remorse without ever sounding pathetic.

All criticisms aside (and really most of them have to do with the mix more than anything else), it's a solid debut by Bona, and it's clear that there's big things to expect from him in the future-- I'd recommend starting with "Reverence" for an introduction to him-- its a bit less accessible I think, but a vastly superior record. But this is a good one and worth having.

what a surprise!.......2005-05-04

Despues de muchos aýos como "buscador" de buena musica, no es sencillo sorprenderme.
Bien... Bona lo hizo.
Si bien pongo mi reseýa en su primer disco. los dos siguientes lo superan!
Lo cautivante es encontrar un musico que no ha perdido la frescura y la pureza de su tierra, y ha incorporado, gracias a su talento, una tecnica y un refinamiento poco comun. O sea, todo degustador de buena musica tiene un plato bien servido, con todos los ingredientes necesarios...
Debo decir ademas que su musica se escucha con una sonrisa en los labios, esto no tiene precio...
Ademas de recomendar sus tres discos como solista, traten de conseguir el de Mino Cilenu, casi agotado. este percusionista se acompaýa con Bona, siendo este en realidad el artifice principal de los mejores temas.
No importa mucho que musica les guste, Bona no los va a defraudar!

Great talent but "no one" is "Jaco".......2005-02-13

It never ceases to amaze me how carelessly people make comparisons between talented artists and true groundbreaking phenomenons.

Richard Bona is a truly gifted artist and a phenomenally good bassist. But enough of this silliness about being better than Jaco Pastorius. For one thing, without Jaco there is no Richard Bona, at least not playing the way he does now. Jaco completely changed the musical landscape for bassists and for that matter all musicians. His genius goes so far beyond just being a great player and twenty years from now they won't be talking about all of the bass players that Richard influenced, rather that he was a standout amongst the thousands who were influenced and shaped by Jaco.
Not to mention Jaco as a composer of classic compositions that will live on forever. He's just one of those once in a lifetime musical phenomenons, which is taking nothing away from Richard.

Richard has accomplished a lot and has much more to accomplish in his career, but reaching Jaco's place in musical history, with all due respect, is a completely different thing.

Real maestro of african music.......2003-01-15

Richard Bona's music has made us, cameroonians, proud of our country. His music relates to and represents all regions of cameroon. i love especially 'Muntula Moto' in the 'Reverence' album.

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