hello, music world, richard bona has done it again, this time he has topped himself and he gone 'solo' and by that i mean is his nu cd 'ten shades of blue' does not feature his usual band members but he has basically created new music on his own and 'popped round the world' (that's an ode to patrick oke a radio dj in the 80s naija radio) and explored nu beats, sounds and nuances.Ten shades is basically ten ways of interpreting the BLUES.
Where do i start from, he kicks off at the indian sub continent and experiments with indian sound and cooked up the brilliant 'shiva mantra' and boy does it work while not losing his african sensibility. 'shiva' is complete with sitar,tabla, ganijira and a beautifully work indian vocal percussion and underpinning it all bona's vocals and music. On 'Good Times' we has the vocal excellency of Frank Mc comb (one of the probably most ignored and underated singer /songwriter of this generation) and Gregoire maret(harmonica)also features on this song bringing out the essence of the blues and so giving it the stevie wonder vibe.Mbemba Mama is a tribute to mothers.all other songs are exploring the blues from all musical angles and infusing various musical instruments from fiddles, banjo tablas, organs ,harmonica,fula flutes etc.
This is probably in my humble opinion bona's best cd to date and i can say that because i have all his cds and coincidentally this nu cd marks 10 years of recorded music from him. he has come a long long way from 'scenes from my life' his first cd . musicians featured are Jojo Kuoh (Camerounian drummer from Fela kuti band) for the afrobeat effect on african cowboy and souleymane,Gregoire Maret -harmonica , shankar mahadevan, nandini srikar ,vivek rajgopatan,satyajit talwalkar on vocals and vocal percussion to mention a few
bona would be in concert at the barbican centre london on the 2nd of november 2009 and hopefully i should be there.
I have had this cd on repeat ever since i have had it, the more i listen the move i am loving it. the one song i am loving the most is track 8 esukudu what kills me is the vocal arrangement from 3.40 into this song and boy to describe it in one word .... peace
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