The name Bona may refer to:

Places[link]

• The former name of Annaba, a city in northeastern Algeria
• Bona, Sweden, a town in Östergötland County, Sweden
• Bona, Scotland, an area an civil parish between Inverness and the North of Loch Ness

Persons[link]

• Bona of Pisa (c. 1156–1207), Italian saint
• Bona of Savoy, duchess of Savoy
• Alberto Bona (born 1978), Italian actor and film maker
• Gino Bona (born 1973), American marketing professional
• Giovanni Bona (1609–1674), Cistercian cardinal and author
• Giovanni Leonardo Di Bona (1542–1587), Italian chess player
• Jerry L. Bona (born 1945), American mathematician
• Richard Bona (born 1967), Cameroonian jazz musician and bassist
• Stanislaus Bona (1888–1967), American Roman Catholic bishop

Companies[link]

• Bona AB, Swedish wood floor installation and maintenance systems company, founded in 1919 by Wilhelm Edner

See also[link]

• All pages beginning with "Bona", includes persons with forename "Bona"
• All pages with titles containing "Bona"

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (September 2010)

Richard Bona
Bona performing in 2009
Background information
Birth name	Bona Pinder Yayumayalolo
Born	(1967-10-28) October 28, 1967 (age 44) Minta, Cameroon
Genres	Jazz fusion, jazz
Occupations	Musician, composer
Instruments	Bass guitar, double bass, percussion, vocals, guitar, balafon
Labels	Universal Music, Columbia, Sony, Verve, GRP
Associated acts	Pat Metheny Group, Zawinul Syndicate
Website	www.bonatology.com

Richard Bona (born October 28, 1967 in Minta, Cameroon) is a jazz bassist and musician. His actual African name, as he said live in Montreal in a show with Bobby McFerrin, is Bona Pinder Yayumayalolo.^{[citation needed]}

Biography[link]

Bona was born into a family of musicians, which enabled him to start learning music from a young age. His grandfather was a griot-- a West African singer of praise and storyteller-- and percussionist, and his mother was a singer. At 4 years old, Bona started to play the balafon. At the age of 5, he began performing at his village church. Not being wealthy, Bona made many of his own instruments: including flutes and guitars (with cords strung over an old motorcycle tank).

His talent was quickly noticed, and he was often invited to perform at festivals and ceremonies. Bona began learning to play the guitar at age 11, and in 1980 aged just 13, he assembled his first ensemble for a French jazz club in Douala.^[1] The owner befriended him and helped him discover jazz music and, notably including Jaco Pastorius in particular, whose work inspired Bona to switch his focus to the electric bass.

Bona emigrated to Germany at the age of 22 to study music in Düsseldorf,^[1] soon relocating to France, where he furthered his studies in music.

Whilst in France, he regularly played in various jazz clubs, sometimes with players such as Manu Dibango, Salif Keita, Jacques Higelin and Didier Lockwood.

In 1995, Richard left France and established himself in New York, where he still lives and works. In New York he played bass guitar with artists like Joe Zawinul, Larry Coryell, Michael and Randy Brecker, Mike Stern, George Benson, Brandford Marsalis, Chaka Khan, Bobby McFerrin, and Steve Gadd.

In 1998, Richard was the Musical Director on Harry Belafonte's European Tour.

His first solo album, Scenes from My Life, was released in 1999. He has also been prominently featured in Jaco Pastorius Big Band albums, as well as many other albums by various top-tier jazz musicians.

In 2002 Bona went on a world tour with the Pat Metheny Group as a percussionist/vocalist.

In 2005 Bona released his fourth album Tiki, which included a collaboration with John Legend on one track, entitled "Please Don't Stop."

He currently holds a professorship of music at New York University.

Discography[link]

Richard Bona, 3 August 2006

• 1999 : Scenes from my life Columbia Jazz
• 2000 : Kaze Ga kureta Melody, Columbia Jazz
• 2001 : Reverence, Columbia Jazz
• 2003 : Munia: The Tale, Universal Music France
• 2004 : Toto Bona Lokua, No Format! with Lokua Kanza & Gerald Toto
• 2005 : Tiki, Universal Music France
• 2008 : Bona Makes You Sweat - Live, Universal Jazz France
• 2009 : The Ten Shades Of Blues, Universal Jazz France

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Richard Bona

• Official website

Eugene Domingo (born July 23, 1971)^[2] is a Filipina theater, movie and television actress. She is best known for playing the role of Rowena in the Ang Tanging Ina series. She also appeared in many commercially successful films such as Kimmy Dora, Here Comes the Bride, Ang Babae Sa Septic Tank and many more.

She is the only actress in the Philippine entertainment history to have participated in six films (Working Girls 2010, Here Comes the Bride, Mamarazzi, Petrang Kabayo, RPG: Metanoia, Ang Tanging Ina Mo (Last na 'To!)) produced by eight Filipino production companies (GMA Films, Regal Films, Unitel Productions, OctoArts Films, Quantum Films, VIVA Films, Ambient Media, Star Cinema) within a year. Domingo also holds the record of being the first lead actress in Philippine cinema to star in the most films — seven — in a year.

Acting career[link]

Domingo started her career by enrolling in the University of the Philippines's Theatre Arts program, and apprenticing as an actress, production and stage management staff under the university's theatre company Dulaang UP.^[3] She played a role in the film Foster Child^[4] which won her the award for Best Supporting Actress in the Gawad Tanglaw. She appeared on a number of sitcoms, teleseryes and drama anthologies on ABS-CBN and GMA Network. She also gives the Filipino voice of Tagalog dubbed Cinderella of ABS-CBN as Fairy Godmother or Bb. Polette.

Filmography[link]

Television[link]

Films[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• ABS-CBN Interactive, 2007 a banner year for Eugene Domingo

Bobby McFerrin
Bobby McFerrin in March 2011
Background information
Birth name	Robert McFerrin, Jr
Born	(1950-03-11) March 11, 1950 (age 62) Manhattan, New York
Genres	Jazz, Reggae, World Music, Classical Music
Occupations	Musician Songwriter Conductor Arranger Producer
Instruments	Vocals, piano, bass guitar, clarinet
Years active	1977–present
Labels	Manhattan Records Blue Note Records Elektra Records Sony Classical
Associated acts	Chick Corea Herbie Hancock
Website	www.bobbymcferrin.com

Robert "Bobby" McFerrin, Jr. (born March 11, 1950) is a virtuoso American vocalist and conductor. He is best known for his 1988 hit song "Don't Worry, Be Happy". He is a ten-time Grammy Award winner. He is well known for his unique vocal techniques and singing styles.

Life[link]

Bobby McFerrin was born in Manhattan, New York City, the son of operatic baritone Robert McFerrin and singer Sara Copper.^[1] Robert Sr. was the first African American to be a regular with New York's Metropolitan Opera. Sara is a former soloist with regional opera companies and in Broadway shows, and is a professor emeritus of music at Fullerton College in Fullerton, California.

Bobby McFerrin married Debbie Green in 1975. They have three children.^[2]

McFerrin's song "Don't Worry, Be Happy" was a No. 1 U.S. pop hit in 1988 and won Song of the Year and Record of the Year honors. McFerrin has also worked in collaboration with instrumental performers, including pianists Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, and Joe Zawinul, drummer Tony Williams, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Vocal technique[link]

As a vocalist, McFerrin often switches rapidly between modal and falsetto registers to create polyphonic effects, performing both the main melody and the accompanying parts of songs. He makes use of percussive effects created both with his mouth and by tapping on his chest. McFerrin is also capable of multiphonic singing, as observed in his song "Drive" from the 2005 DVD Live in Montreal.^[3]

A notable document of McFerrin's approach to singing is his 1984 album The Voice, the first solo vocal jazz album recorded with no accompaniment or overdubbing.^[4]

Career[link]

In 1986, McFerrin was the voice of Santa Bear in Santa Bear's First Christmas, and in 1987 he was the voice of Santa Bear/Bully Bear in the sequel Santa Bear's High Flying Adventure. That same year, he performed the theme song for the opening credits of Season 4 of The Cosby Show, as well as the music for a Cadbury chocolate commercial.^{[citation needed]}

In 1988, McFerrin recorded the hit song "Don't Worry, Be Happy", which brought him widespread recognition across the world. However, the song's success "ended McFerrin's musical life as he had known it," and he began to pursue other musical possibilities – on stage and in recording studios.^[5] The song was used in George H. W. Bush's 1988 U.S. presidential election as Bush's 1988 official presidential campaign song, without Bobby McFerrin's permission or endorsement. In reaction, Bobby McFerrin publicly protested that particular use of his song, including stating that he was going to vote against Bush, and completely dropped the song from his own performance repertoire, to make the point even clearer.^{[citation needed]}

In 1989, he composed and performed the music for the Pixar short film Knick Knack. The rough cut to which McFerrin recorded his vocals had the words "blah blah blah" in place of the end credits (meant to indicate that he should improvise). McFerrin spontaneously decided to sing "blah blah blah" as lyrics, and the final version of the short film includes these lyrics during the end credits. Also in 1989, he formed a ten-person "Voicestra" which he featured on both his 1990 album Medicine Music and in the score to the 1989 Oscar-winning documentary Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt. The song "Common Threads" has frequently reappeared in some public service advertisements about AIDS. McFerrin also performed with the Vocal Summit.^{[citation needed]}

As early as 1992, widespread rumors circulated that falsely claimed McFerrin committed suicide. The rumors intentionally made fun of the distinctly positive nature of his popular song "Don't Worry, Be Happy" by claiming McFerrin ironically took his own life.^[6]

In 1993, McFerrin sang Henry Mancini's "Pink Panther" theme for the movie Son of the Pink Panther.

In addition to his vocal performing career, in 1994, Mr. McFerrin was appointed as creative chair of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. He makes regular tours as a guest conductor for symphony orchestras throughout the United States and Canada, including the San Francisco Symphony (on his 40th birthday), the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic and many others. In McFerrin's concert appearances, he combines serious conducting of classical pieces with his own unique vocal improvisations, often with participation from the audience and the orchestra. For example, the concerts often end with McFerrin conducting the orchestra in an a cappella rendition of the "William Tell Overture," in which the orchestra members sing their musical parts in McFerrin's vocal style instead of playing their parts on their instruments.

For a few years in the late 1990s, he toured a concert version of Porgy and Bess, partly in honor of his father, who sang the role for Sidney Poitier in the 1959 film version, and partly "to preserve the score's jazziness" in the face of "largely white orchestras" who tend not "to play around the bar lines, to stretch and bend". McFerrin says that because of his father's work in the movie, "This music has been in my body for 40 years, probably longer than any other music."^[7]

McFerrin also participates in various music education programs and makes volunteer appearances as a guest music teacher and lecturer at public schools throughout the U.S. McFerrin has collaborated with his son, Taylor, on various musical ventures. Taylor has recently been singing, rapping, and playing minimal keyboard accompaniment with Vernon Reid (leader-guitarist of Living Colour) in the eclectic metal-fusion-funk group Yohimbe Brothers.^{[citation needed]}

In 2009, McFerrin and musician-scientist Daniel Levitin served as co-hosts of The Music Instinct, a two-hour award-winning documentary produced by PBS and based on Levitin's best-selling book This Is Your Brain On Music. Later that year, the two appeared together on a panel at the World Science Festival, where McFerrin demonstrated audience participation with the ubiquitous nature of human understanding of the pentatonic scale by singing and dancing, and having the audience sing while following his movements.^[8]

Discography[link]

As leader[link]

• Bobby McFerrin (1982)
• The Voice (1984)
• Spontaneous Inventions (1987)
• Elephant's Child (1987)
• Simple Pleasures (1988)
• Don't Worry, Be Happy (1988)
• How the Rhino Got His Skin/How the Camel Got His Hump (1990)
• Medicine Music (1990)
• Play, with Chick Corea, 1992
• Hush, with Yo-Yo Ma, 1992
• Many Faces of Bird (1991)
• "The Siamese Cat Song" on Simply Mad About the Mouse (1991)
• Sorrow Is Not Forever (1994)
• Paper Music (1995, Doick with the St. Paul Chamber orchestra)
• Bang! Zoom (1996)
• The Mozart Sessions, with Chick Corea, 1996
• Circlesongs (1997)
• Mouth Music (2001)
• Beyond Words (2002) – featuring Chick Corea, Cyro Baptista and Richard Bona
• Konzert für Europa -The Schönbrunn Concert (2004)
• VOCAbuLarieS (2010)

As sideman[link]

• Pharoah Sanders, Journey to the One, 1980
• Grover Washington, Jr., The Best Is Yet to Come, 1982
• Various Artists, The Young Lions, 1983
• Charles Lloyd Quartet, A Night in Copenhagen (Blue Note, 1984)
• Various Artists, A Tribute to Thelonius Monk, 1984
• Chico Freeman, Tangents, 1984
• Michael Hedges, Watching My Life Go By, 1985
• The Manhattan Transfer, Vocalese, 1985
• Joe Zawinul, Di•a•lects, 1986
• Weather Report, Sportin' Life, 1985
• Al Jarreau, Heart’s Horizon, 1988
• Quincy Jones, Back on the Block, 1989
• Laurie Anderson, Strange Angels, 1989
• Gal Costa, The Laziest Gal in Town, 1991
• Dizzy Gillespie, Bird Songs: The Final Recordings (Telarc, 1992), To Bird with Love (Telarc, 1992)
• Jack DeJohnette, Extra Special Edition (Blue Note, 1994)
• Yellowjackets, Dreamland, 1995
• George Martin, In My Life, 1998 – on "Come Together" with Robin Williams
• En Vogue, Masterpiece Theatre, 2000
• Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Little Worlds, 2003
• Chick Corea, Rendezvous in New York, 2003
• Wynton Marsalis, The Magic Hour, 2004
• size2shoes, 2006 (free track)^[9]

Grammys[link]

• 1985, Best Jazz Vocal Performance, male, "Another Night In Tunisia" with Jon Hendricks
• 1985, Best Vocal Arrangement for two or more voices, "Another Night In Tunisia" with Cheryl Bentyne
• 1986, Best Jazz Vocal Performance, male, "Round Midnight"
• 1987, Best Jazz Vocal Performance, male, "What Is This Thing Called Love"
• 1987, Best Recording for Children, "The Elephant's Child" with Jack Nicholson
• 1988, Song of the year, Best Pop Vocal Performance, male, Record of the year, "Don't Worry, Be Happy"
• 1988, Best Jazz Vocal Performance, male, "Brothers"
• 1992, Best Jazz Vocal Performance, "Round Midnight"

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bobby McFerrin

• Bobby McFerrin

This article is an orphan, as few or no other articles link to it. Please introduce links to this page from related articles; suggestions may be available. (July 2011)

Charlotte Dipanda (born in 1985, Yaoundé, Cameroon) is an Afropop singer from Cameroon, who plays mostly acoustic music. Her lyrics are in French, her native language Bakaka, and in Douala.

Biography[link]

Dipanda made her first record with guitar player Jeannot Hens. It was released in 2002. She was spotted by Congolese musician Lokua Kanza, in an open-mic session at a Yaoundé club. She then moved to France, where she has worked with Congolese singer Papa Wemba. Dipanda has provided background vocals for Manu Dibango, Rokia Traoré and Axelle Red. Dipanda does most of her gigs in Europe, but has also performed in the Palais des sports in her native Yaoundé. Her first solo album is called Mispa, and was released in 2008.

                                                Album Mispa Cover

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

• 2002 Ndando Jeannot Hens ft. Charlotte Dipanda

• 2008 Mispa

1. Bivel
2. To Be Nde Na
3. Mbasan
4. Ndutu Ndema
5. Longue
6. Ala Wone
7. Elle
8. Eyaya
9. Mispa
10. Ndando
11. Mbebi
12. Encore une fois

• 2011 Dube I'am

References and links[link]

• Homepage Charlotte Dipanda
• (French) Biography
• The Herald Cameroon 13/14 April 2009: Charlotte Dipanda
• (French) Radio France International: Charlotte Dipanda Interview

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