Percussionist Bradley Simmons: A Living Repository Of African Drumming Traditions
DURHAM, NC – Bradley Simmons is an artistic musical legend and mentor. He is a professor and musical director at Duke University, specializing in Afro Cuban and African percussion. Simmons and his musical works in arts and entertainment stretch all over the United States. His teachings to musicians all over have created paths for them to thrive in the music and art industry.
In this episode of #SpecMagShorts, I have the pleasure of talking with Baba Bradley Simmons and asking him some questions about his past and how he got to where he is today. (I call him ‘Baba’ as a term of respect attached to a highly valued social role and age in many of the African languages in southern Africa.) Here are just a few amazing answers from our conversation.
[Watch #SpecMagShorts] Bradley Simmons: A Repository of African Drumming Traditions:
Born in New York City, Baba Bradley Simmons began playing Afro-Cuban and African percussion when he was 9 years old. After being inspired by a musical performance, he traveled throughout the city searching and finding percussion teachers knowledgeable in Haitian, Cuban, and African music and history. He was able to enhance his understanding of these rhythmic forms, styles, and techniques.
Baba Simmons became an understudy musician in his first Broadway play entitled Billy Wilson’s version of “Guys and Dolls” starring Robert Guillaume. From that experience, he realized he could have an outgoing successful career as a musician.
Other Broadway Performances include “Timbuktu” with Eartha Kitt and Melba Moore and “Reggae” with Calvin Lockhart and Philip Michael Thomas.
He has performed in off-Broadway plays and in nightclubs with Eartha Kitt, Gregory and Maurice Hines, Miles Jaye, and Obba Babatunde. Bradley directed his own show at the National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta, GA, and in Durham, NC called “Cultural Journey: The Elements of Percussion”. He created the “Elements of Percussion”, a percussion ensemble, as a way to share all types of percussion instruments and their cultural styles.
Baba Bradley Simmons is the former Music Director of the Chuck Davis African American Dance Ensemble of Durham, NC. He has taught percussion classes at many universities and has been a professor and instructor of music at Duke University for the past 25 years.
Baba Bradley is indeed himself “a living repository of African drumming traditions” – the same words Simmons used in 2003 to describe his mentor and former teacher, Chief Bey. Baba Bradley’s passion for music and arts still burns bright and his legacy speaks for itself. His dedication to move forward and teach the next generation what others have taught him is respected and appreciated by all.
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