Vicky Jassey is a founder and artistic director of Bombo Productions, supporting Afro-Cuban music in the U.K. since 2007. She is also a scholar, musician and educator. She holds a PhD in Ethnomusicology from Cardiff.
University and completed her Masters in Performance at SOAS, University of London. Vicky worked as an independent researcher at Florida International University, where she completed an oral history project on Miami ritual batá drummers called The Bearers of Sacred Sound.
Vicky specialises in Afro-Cuban folkloric music and is a co-director, lead singer and percussionist in Coro de Clave – Cuban Harmony Choir in the UK and Spain and Orchestra Bombo. She is also the director of Moving Voices UK, an organisation that provides support and group singing for female survivors of human trafficking. She is a ritual singer for Tambor de Fundatmento, Güiro and Cajon de Muerto and has performed with Geraldo y Sus Amigos, Dilanga, Meta Meta, Edun Ara and Rumba Oricha. Together with her partner David Pattman, they run Finca Ara Oko, a creative retreat in Spain.
Relevant documents:
PhD Thesis: Tambor Reverberations: Gender, Sexuality and Change in Cuban Batá
Smithsonian Centre for Folklife and Cultural Heritage: The Rise of Female Batá Drummers
