Drumming News
Baba Bradley Simmons, a master of West African and Afro-Cuban drumming, passed away in Durham on May 22 at age 73. For nearly 30 years, he was a cornerstone of Duke University’s Music Department, teaching generations about djembes, dununs, congas, and more.
Born in 1951 in New York, Simmons grew up immersed in African diasporic music, learning from legends like Chief James Hawthorne Bey and Julito Collazo. He performed on Broadway and with salsa orchestras, bringing deep knowledge of Yoruba and Lucumí spiritual traditions to his art.
In Durham since the 1990s, Simmons served as director of percussion for Baba Chuck Davis’s African American Dance Ensemble before joining Duke in 1998. Known affectionately as Baba Bradley—a respectful title in West African culture—he was revered not only as a teacher but as a scholar and spiritual guide.
His students praise his rigorous teaching, which emphasized cultural heritage and identity through music. Despite lacking formal advanced degrees, he inspired many to pursue music seriously, preserving African folklore and rhythms in North Carolina’s academic and cultural spaces.
Baba Bradley’s influence extended beyond campus into the broader community, shaping local jazz, Latin, and Afro-Caribbean scenes. As percussionist Brevan Hampden said, “When an elder transitions, a library disappears.” Simmons’s legacy lives on every time the drums play and dancers move to his rhythms.
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