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More than 60 Years of National and International Experience

Resume

I was born and raised in New York, surrounded by Afro-Caribbean musical traditions. When little of the original music of the African Diaspora was available in the United States, I began my percussion career as a young conga player in New York City.

Industry Experience

Babasango is the founder and artistic director of the Liberation Ensemble, an Afro-American dance and percussion performance group in Queens, New York. He continues to be affiliated with the group as well as with Bartlett's Contemporaries Band.
He became a percussionist and percussion chair in Broadway, off-Broadway, and international tour productions, including the U.S. and Japan tours of The Wiz, starring Stephanie Mills. He also took part in other Broadway shows like But Never Jam Today, Bubbling Brown Sugar, and Jumpers.
Babsango was chosen for the national film, television, and commercial parts and openings. He is proud to have worked with famed performers, including Stephanie Mills, Jill Clayburgh, Eartha Kitt, Vivian Reed, Ethel Beaty, Angela Bofill, The Drifters, Henry Kapono, Rolando Sanchez, the Queens College Wind Ensemble and Percussion Ensemble, and many others on national and international stages. He also did recordings for The Escorts, TV commercials, and others, including overdubs and demos. Some of the projects he worked on include:
  • Coca-Cola Commercial
  • Another World in Somerset (Soap Opera)
  • Night of the Juggler (Film)
  • The Wiz (Film)
Babasango is currently the percussionist in Legends in Concert Waikiki’s “Rock-A-Hula” show in Honolulu.

Music/Percussion Performances

Among Babasango's treasured experiences are doing Nubian Nights on annual Caribbean cruise tours with New York's Bartlett's Contemporaries, playing with pianist Richard Crandall and the Hawaii Jazz All-Stars, accompanying guitarist Jeff Linsky, and being in Harry Belafonte's opening act in Honolulu. He can be seen with Richard Crandall, Noel Okimoto, Byron Yasui, and Sam Ahia in a segment of Hawaii Public Television's “Na Mele” series. https://www.pbshawaii.org/na-mele-hawaii-jazz-all-stars/ He had the pleasure of performing at the Blue Note Hawai'i with Genai and Mike Lewis in a tribute to Sade and at Medici's Manoa with Thomas Mackay and Vibra Cubana.
In Honolulu, Babasango organized and led an international percussion ensemble in for the first Biennial International Millennium Youth Congress. He was the Musical Director for Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories, a production of the renowned Honolulu Theatre for Youth. Babasango soloed with the Hawaii Youth Symphony in the orchestral debut of Bop-a-Deedle! by Dr. Neil McKay, a composition inspired by his repertoire of rhythms with percussion parts composed especially for his performance. He created, costumed and choreographed a multi-week series with his Babasango's Angels at the former Sol de Cuba Restaurant.
Babasango has played with many Hawai'i musicians in Latin, jazz, symphonic and choir/chorale performances , including singers and musicians from Hawai'i Pacific University, Central Union Church, and the First Presbyterian Church of Honolulu. He has given lectures and demonstrations for Ethnomusicology and percussion students at the University of Hawai'i, produced and participated in theatre, music, and drama productions at Punahou School, Mid-Pacific Institute, Chaminade University, Waldorf School Honolulu, and the Assets School.

Education

Babasango's early education started with Richard "Pablo" Landrum at the Gloria Jackson School of Music and Dance in Queens, New York. He continued learning by accompanying dance classes at the LaRocque Bey School of Dance Theater in Harlem and performing and traveling to Africa with Nana Dinizulu. He also taught for the Black Spectrum Theatre Company. These were the places where he quickly rose to become head conga drummer, lead percussionist, and drumming instructor.
Babasango graduated from Queens College with a B.A. in Theater Drama/Mass Communications. His field studies in Cuba resulted in transcriptions of sacred bata drum rhythms and a Master's degree in Ethnomusicology from the University of Hawai'i in 2003. He has contributed significantly to the academic body of knowledge about the Nigerian and Cuban batá drum. He substitutes for university faculty and is on the adjunct faculty list. He has also done an independent study in Puerto Rico, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Nigeria, Ghana, Cuba, and Brazil. During his past 30+ years in Hawaii, Babasango has continued studying, performing, composing, and teaching conga drumming and Afro-Caribbean percussion in Honolulu and New York City.