Culture, rhythm, creativity - drummer Kayode aims to bring collective joy
Culture, rhythm, creativity - drummer Kayode aims to bring collective joy
“Culture is memory. Rhythm is language. Creativity is healing. My work brings these worlds together to inspire unity and collective joy.”
That’s an ambitious mission statement by Nigerian drummer Kayode Bamgbose (*Kaybams”), who has lived in Manchester with his wife and two teenage children since 2022.
Bamgbose is determinedly positive, but he admits the transition from west Africa to the UK hasn’t been all plain sailing.
“Ahh, I can’t lie to you, it’s not been easy, settling down, settling in — it wasn’t funny at all,” he recalls. He had visited family and friends here several times in the past, “but there’s a difference between coming on holiday and coming to stay.
“I’ve realised that in the UK everything is a process and you have to follow it. It’s a gradual thing.
“Some people come and want to start quickly… but no, it doesn’t work like that. In UK you have to do things gradually.”
For some migrants the problems include racism, “they find that some people don’t accept them, especially when you are black.”
His response, and his recipe for the future, is: stay positive: “Don’t think what the system can do for you, think what you can do for the system.”
As well as taking part in several international music jamborees, he has been connected with a play, Kashimawo, at the Shaw Theatre in London; performed at Christmas musical celebrations; and at a Migrant Voice co-sponsored International Migrants Day “cultural hangout”. He volunteers with the Salford Youth Zone charity in Greater Manchester, where he runs a regular drum workshop. “I focus on creativity as a universal language that invites everyone in.
“That’s what I’m bringing to UK, to create an impact for the people. And the response has been so awesome, so fantastic, old and young.”
One of his aims is “to infuse my music into British music, African cultural music into the Western world”, perhaps by working with other musicians in Manchester and London. He foresees more stage performances, too, ”because I’m into theatre“. He has written a one-man play about child drug abuse aimed at encouraging youngsters to stay away from drugs.
He also has a vision to use music and drumming as therapy in care homes and mental health facilities, where people need “a relaxed atmosphere where you can engage them”.
So the migration journey that 49-year-old Bambgose says was initially “a bit shaky” now has “light at the end of the tunnel. It’s hard to get established, get recognition — especially in a place that’s so competitive, but if you have things to deliver people will get to know you.”