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In the two years I’ve sat in concerts here in Budapest I’ve heard a lot of technically sound musicians.
Sometimes when I listen to musicians I know they’re connected to the creative center of the universe and when they play, they just open their third eye and go for it. Richard Bona is one of those.

Originally from Cameroon, and now based in New York City, Richard accompanies his bass guitar singing with a falsetto voice that comes from a similar place as Joe Zawinul’s singer Sabine Kabongo.

Richard and his band played to a packed a38 concert boat on Tuesday evening, and held the mature audience spell-bound from start to finish. He even had them singing, though I have to say the women’s voices were pitifully weak in comparison to the men’s - and this is perhaps more a reflection on the socio-cultural status of women in Hungary than on their ability, or desire to sing. The longer I stay here the more profoundly aware I am of how the women in this country have been silenced and how they have learned to survive and function within the obscenely ardent patriarchy that thrives here.

At one point during the concert, Richard invited the women to sing. They were soft, yet present - as women in Hungary have learned to be. Then he invited the women over 40 only, and the voices all but disappeared, as is the case here. (It’s pathetic that men in Hungary by and large value only women under 30, and even more pathetic that so many of the women under 30 buy into the game.) By contrast, when Richard invited the men to try their voices, the concert boat filled with their sound.

Okay - back to the music.

Other than the star - a few things stood out for me on this particular evening. Every player in this band is top notch, and my ears were particularily perked by A.T.N. Stadwijk (who hails from Holland) on keyboards. But it was Brazil’s 24-year-old Eli Menezes’ guitar that most impressed me. Is it his age? His playing? or my personal predilection for the guitar? I am a sucker for a good guitar!

But there is one more thing I feel compelled to mention, and I know my Canadian friends who have worked in music and film will appreciate this. While I was listening, I was struck by the top notch sound mix, and the thought ran through my mind: “Wow, there is a really hot technician on the board tonight.”

Backstage, after the concert, I had the pleasure of meeting the person responsible for that. And yup, you guessed it: a Quebecer, Daniel Boivon who is now based in France and operates as atour manager/sound man.

One of things that Quebec first became famous for was its technicians, in both film and music - and the reason is that American producers exploited Montreal as a production venue because it offered cheap labor in comparison to the U.S. As a result, technical talent was developed. The same thing is starting to happen here in Hungary. The U.S. film producers have discovered it as a cheap location and there are more and more American films being shot here all the time.

On the music side of things, the technical talent is not so hot, and Hungarian musicians complain about it and I can certainly hear the absence of any real talent in that realm. But musicians themselves are well developed, and the Hungarian Ministry of Culture is attempting to take care of them through a couple of new programs. One in the establishment of an office committed to exporting Hungarian musicians, the other to provide monies to pay emerging musicians when they perform in clubs. The sad thing is, as evidenced by the audience at Richard’s concert, women’s voices are few and far between.

I send you once again to read my poem on the Poetry Page ‘Tribute to Ani Defranco’. (click the link and scroll past all the pics of me on stage and then click on Tribute to Ani and the pdf file will open.) It’s just one of the songs I personally am looking for musicians to work with…but hey - I’m over 30…

But I digress. This post is supposed to be about Richard Bona. Perhaps it is more about him than meets the eye?