Richard Bona: The Lick

[Tim Skaggs]

It's an impressive flurry of notes that I'm all but sure I couldn't play if I tried, but if I could play it perfectly, I would have nowhere to use it. The band I'm in plays no song into which that lick would fit, and I seriously doubt they would learn a song just so I would have somewhere to insert that lick.

So, if I could play it and chose to throw it out there on occasion, I'd be screwing up a good song just to show off,…….and I'm fairly sure that's exactly what I would do…..

 

[tb-player]

Want to learn it? Heres a video of that lick!

So wild to see the pre-clickbait, non-overproduced Scott Devine, all calm & chill.

 

[PennyroyalWe]

Been playing for nearly 20 years, but the first time I saw/heard this was on Instagram a month ago, and I about fell out of my chair laughing. I thought, surely, this dude must be trolling us. It's utter nonsense to me, and the singing is the icing on the ridiculous cake.

Sounds like some people (here and else where) enjoy it?

(I respect the skill it takes to play that way. I can't understand the drive to develop that skill .)

 

[jonathanhughes]

It's the singing on top that I really don't understand. The bass lick is already very outside whatever chord he's playing over. The singing on top just adds to the atonality. He's sort of singing the line, but just barely. It's like he's singing a caricature of it. I doubt anyone is capable of cleanly singing those notes that fast — so don't. Either trick on its own would be more than enough. The two mixed together are just nonsense.

 

[logdrum]

I saw him live. Also in that show, he is playing with someone who appears to know how to play changes I thought. Some say he knows jazz. He said people call him Pat - last name M And that he used to bug Gary Burton when he was just a teenager. So maybe that invalidates him to give credibility to this entertainer Richard Bona. Maybe this so-so musician named Pat -- can't find another bass player that day and found this so-so entertainer/bassist busking in San Francisco.

How was the show? Well the producers coached the audience to clap and look amazed. I was definitely hoodwinked that day with this so-so guitar player named Pat - last name beginning with M, playing with this busy fingers entertainer/bassist Richard Bona. Last name Bona don't make you bonafide. Can you play Mustache Sally. Bet you can't.

 

[jerry]

Yes, and if you listen to his solo albums (at least the ones I'm familiar with) you won't hear "virtuosic" bass all over the place - he's really just playing for the songs.

+1, His solo albums are beautiful, hardly shred-fests.
His playing and singing on this Mike Stern tune is awesome.

 

[SteveCS]

It's the singing on top that I really don't understand. The bass lick is already very outside whatever chord he's playing over. The singing on top just adds to the atonality. He's sort of singing the line, but just barely. It's like he's singing a caricature of it. I doubt anyone is capable of cleanly singing those notes that fast — so don't. Either trick on its own would be more than enough. The two mixed together are just nonsense.

For me, yes and no in equal measure.

On the one hand, my ears don't work fast enough to draw much musical sense from what is going on - I just hear probably every 4th note with some unimportant auxilliary scale fragments connecting them together. Sometimes there are sequences of (every 4th) notes that make a tune or melody that makes sense - other times they don't make a tune and just sound like dissonant noise. But the bits that do make sense are quite remarkable, and the pure technical chops are off the charts.

On the other hand, there is a lot to be said for 'scatting' and trying to play along. Even at a fraction of the tempo, the process of humming a simple improvisation and playing along in unison really opens your ears up and helps build the mental connection between ears and hands. Notwithstanding the potential benefits, it is probably something best kept in the woodshed.

 

[Lesfunk]

Sounds like George Duke doing the "be-bop tango"

 

[Dr. Cheese]

Richard definitely has a "purely for entertainment" side to him but I don't find that it diminishes his artistic merit. He's an incredible musician, whether he's playing bass, playing guitar or just singing. His appearance was one of the highlights of the Bobby McFerrin show I caught a number of years back:

Oh my goodness! Bona and McFerrin were awesome together! Richard Bona is at level of excellence that I can only appreciate because I will never approach it.

 

[doran.dragic]

Not only is a Richard a great player, but he's also a good guy (I met him at NAMM a few years ago at the Essential Sound Products booth).

The way he acted online after his business relationship with TechAmp ended or was supposed to end (after he signed another endorsement deal with another company) made him look pretty bad from what I can remember though. Maybe somebody here knows both sides of the story?

I know another Richard Bona story from a guy who is a top notch bassist and toured with many of the same artists that Richard did. And I mean the ones that we all know.

He told me how Richard came to New York from Europe in the mid 90s and got in touch with my buddy because RB only had little gear at the time so my friend would lend him his gear whenever Richard needed it because he felt like Richard Bona was such a great guy. He also introduced him to some of the people who Bona ended up working with. Months go by, Richard Bona is now famous and forgets that my buddy even exists and fails to greet him whenever they meet to this day.

You decide if you believe this or not. My friend might've been a bit jealous but he never stopped working with these same people and Richard Bona went to do other things. Truth be told, we weren't even talking about about RB when the story came up.

 

[Dr. Cheese]

The way he acted online after his business relationship with TechAmp ended or was supposed to end (after he signed another endorsement deal with another company) made him look pretty bad from what I can remember though. Maybe somebody here knows both sides of the story?

I know another Richard Bona story from a guy who is a top notch bassist and toured with many of the same artists that Richard did. And I mean the ones that we all know.

He told me how Richard came to New York from Europe in the mid 90s and got in touch with my buddy because RB only had little gear at the time so my friend would lend him his gear whenever Richard needed it because he felt like Richard Bona was such a great guy. He also introduced him to some of the people who Bona ended up working with. Months go by, Richard Bona is now famous and forgets that my buddy even exists and fails to greet him whenever they meet to this day.

You decide if you believe this or not. My friend might've been a bit jealous but he never stopped working with these same people and Richard Bona went to do other things. Truth be told, we weren't even talking about about RB when the story came up.

I have no way of knowing if this is true or not. I just know it has nothing to do with Bona as a musician or entertainer.

 

[doran.dragic]

I have no way of knowing if this is true or not. I just know it has nothing to do with Bona as a musician or entertainer.

I was answering to the post that was saying what a great guy he was. I found it amusing that one is able to judge a character after a brief exchange of words at an event where the other person gets paid to be there and be a nice guy.

 

[doran.dragic]

I have no way of knowing if this is true or not. I just know it has nothing to do with Bona as a musician or entertainer.

I was answering to the post that was saying what a great guy he was. I found it amusing that one is able to judge a character after a brief exchange of words at an event where the other person gets paid to be there and be a nice guy.

 

[SteveCS]

...
Richard came to New York from Europe in the mid 90s and got in touch with my buddy because RB only had little gear at the time so my friend would lend him his gear whenever Richard needed it because he felt like Richard Bona was such a great guy. He also introduced him to some of the people who Bona ended up working with. Months go by, Richard Bona is now famous and forgets that my buddy even exists and fails to greet him whenever they meet to this day.
...

I just know it has nothing to do with Bona as a musician or entertainer.

Not sure about that, Doc. Blanking out folks that gave you an early leg up might reasonably be considered bad form, IMHO.

 

[Dr. Cheese]

Not sure about that, Doc. Blanking out folks that gave you an early leg up might reasonably be considered bad form, IMHO.

If it happened, we don't know Bona's side of the story.

 

[kesslari]

Richard definitely has a "purely for entertainment" side to him but I don't find that it diminishes his artistic merit. He's an incredible musician, whether he's playing bass, playing guitar or just singing. His appearance was one of the highlights of the Bobby McFerrin show I caught a number of years back:

And that Bobby McFerrin! What a showboater!! Why doesn't he just sing "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and stop showing off?
I'll bet he couldn't sing "Musting Sally!"