News in from Wrasse Records: The Ten Shades of Blue is Richard Bona at his unidentifiable best, blending his own African musical roots, jazz sensibilities and poignant lyrical reflections on his life, which marks yet another broadening of the very definition of jazz and blues.

The story goes that he cried from birth until he saw his first Balafon at the age of 3 and he then stopped crying! He then constructed his own balafon from wood around his village and started practicing on his new instrument for 8-12 hours a day. Born in 1967 in Cameroon he came from a musical family. He started performing at 5 and soon the word spread of a talented young man. He was discovered in a Jazz Café in 1989 and hasn’t looked back, he now lives in New York. He learnt his trade from great musicians such as Manu Dibango, Salif Keita and Didier Lockwood. More recently he has worked with Pat Metheny, Larry Corryell, Joe Zawinul and the singer Harry Belafonte.

He feels Blues is a universal language not only from America, but rediscovered in Africa and even India. People from all countries relate to the blues style, and it is just made for the base guitar. Richard sees it as a range which represents different traditions and musical expressions. “I went to Madras, to Bombay, to Nashville, to New York..” Ten Shades Of Blues means ten nuances, ten different manners to interpret the blues.”

It is 10 years since Richard’s Debut album Scenes from My Life. Devoted to the blues, he has created a unique blues album which in parts is quite unidentifiable
something he takes particular joy with.

The Ten Shades of Blue is released on 19th October and Richard Bona has a live date at London's Barbican on 2nd November.