Jacques Bono

Project

I come from a family of artists. My dad and my uncle Giulio used to play the trumpet free-handed, balancing it on their mouths. My uncle Nino played the drums and did a salto with his drumset during their show. So, from the cradle, I was led to experimenting freely with musical instruments.

When I was a child, I wanted to become a classical pianist. But being fascinated by for example Frank Zappa's brand of rock music I ended up playing the electric bass guitar when I was a teenager.

I never stopped loving and listening to classical music, though. Somewhere along the line I happened to come across Bach's cello suites notated in the bass clef. This was the route back to my original intention of playing classical music, this time, however, on the electric bass guitar.

So I began to explore this music, although well-meaning colleagues advised me against doing so because it seemed to be an impossible task in their opinion. But I was less interested in the result than in the preoccupation with Bach's incredibly profound and moving music.

When Professor Robin Page asked me after a few beers at a Munich bar one evening if I could play solo bass, I agreed to play my first solo concert at Munich's Akademie der Künste (Academy of Arts) without further thought - still unaware that this concert would actually take place. This incident brought Johann Sebastian Bach via electric bass guitar on stage. Further concerts followed and so did my first bass solo CD "Breaking Free" presenting selected works by Bach.

In 2013 I had the idea of recording Bach’s 'Inventions' in two voices together with a female violinist. In Munich's German classical music scene I could not find a female violinist who would venture to play freely with me, an electric bass player, without fearing to offend against academically imposed values. That's when my desire for the free spirit of America started to show. The audio equipment company "Fühlklang" made it possible for me to realize my project there - I am very grateful for that.

I was delighted to have found Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu in Los Angeles, who proved to be a violinist capable of playing Johann Sebastian Bach's music vivaciously, in a heart-felt manner and free of dogma with me. So we started out on this adventure in "The Village Studios". I also did a solo-recording of Bach's famous Cello Suite Number One there.

This production has surpassed all my expectations. This CD is characterized by the 'heart' of music, in the sense of Johann Sebastian Bach's musicianship.