Bombo Productions was founded by Vicky Jassey and a group of trustees in 2007 as an unincorporated association. In 2018, it developed into a community arts organisation run by Vicky Jassey and David Pattman. They later established Moving Voices UK, which now serves as the charitable arm of Bombo Productions. Together with a board of trustees—Caroline Stagg, Sandra Morales Cordovez, and Anoop Rattan—Moving Voices UK supports female survivors of human trafficking and female asylum seekers, helping them transition and integrate into the wider community through group singing.
The mission of Bombo Productions and Moving Voices UK is to:
- Provide access to the arts
- Promote cultural expression
- Engage underrepresented communities
- Encourage social change through creative practice
These values are embedded in all aspects of our work, ensuring that artistic expression becomes a tool for empowerment, inclusion, and transformation.
At Bombo Productions, we are committed to a decolonial practice that acknowledges the enduring legacies of colonialism and racial inequality in the transmission of Afro-Cuban music and culture.
Since our founding in 2007, our mission has been to make the rich, complex world of Afro-Cuban music more accessible—while centring respect, accountability, and collaboration with tradition bearers. As non-Afro-Cuban artists engaged in secular and sacred folkloric traditions, we approach our work as students and facilitators, not as authorities or cultural owners.
We work through community-building, education, and direct collaboration to:
- Decentre colonial narratives by foregrounding African diasporic voices and spiritual knowledge in our programming.
- Support Afro-Cuban artists by promoting Afro-Cuban culture and creating opportunities for Cuban artists in the UK, Spain, and Cuba.
- Challenge exclusions by supporting marginalised voices—particularly women.
- Encourage deep, respectful learning through community building, cultural and contextual learning and facilitating connections between students and cultural bearers.
Over the past fifteen years, we’ve built a growing community of musicians, students, and allies—many of whom have gone on to further study and collaboration in Cuba. Our work is grounded in long-standing relationships with Cuban artists, including Irian and Manley “Piri” López (the Chinitos family), Amado DeDeu (Clave Guaguancó), Javier Piña Márquez (ritual singer), Luanda Pau (Afro-Cuban dancer), and Bárbaro Crespo aka Machito (rumbero and ritual drummer), among many others. Since 1993, Vicky and David have made a combined total of twenty-five trips to Cuba, each lasting between two weeks and five months
We are mindful of the risks of cultural appropriation and strive to model a practice based on respect, reciprocity, and accountability. While our work supports our livelihoods, we are not profit-driven. We reinvest in artists and communities and keep our events accessible to all. Cultural sharing, for us, must never mean cultural erasure or exploitation. We aim instead to foster restorative, responsible, and collaborative cultural exchange.
Below is a chronological catalogue of events, workshops, and publications by Bombo Productions which support our objectives.
2007
Bombo Productions was first established by Vicky Jassey as an unincorporated association, initially created to raise funds for the Rhythm Summer School—an affordable, week-long music school for children in Hackney. The association was supported by a committee of Hackney-based musicians and parents. This project ran annually until 2014 and was supported by Hackney Music Development Trust.
2007–2009
Bombo Productions pioneered Journey of the Sacred Songs, an interactive workshop program using music and storytelling to teach primary school children about African and Afro-Caribbean history, geography, music, and culture. These workshops were part of Black History Month activities in Hackney primary schools.
2008–2014
Bombo Productions promoted a five-piece rumba band called Dilanga, directed by David Pattman, with lead singer Flavio Correa.
2009–2020
Bombo Productions founded a Cuban carnival band called Orchestra Bombo, which was active until it folded during the COVID-19 pandemic.
2010–Present
In collaboration with Ravin Jayasurya of One Voice Music, Bombo Productions co-founded Camp Iroko, a summer camp for adults focusing on Afro-Brazilian and Cuban percussion and song.
2010–Present
Bombo Productions set up a monthly free Afro-Cuban folkloric drumming jam session called the Afro-Cuban Music Night. This event has been supported by visiting Cuban musicians, Cuban London-based musicians, and UK percussionists and singers dedicated to the genre. It has exposed new audiences to Afro-Cuban culture.
2010–2020
Weekend courses in batá and rumba were offered by David Pattman and Vicky Jassey through Bombo Productions.
2014 & 2015
Bombo Productions organises study trips to Cuba, allowing students to travel to Cuba to learn from cultural bearers. Another is planned for 2026. Afro-Cuban Percussion Retreat, Havana 2026, Afro-Cuban Singing Retreat, Havana 2026
2017
Vicky Jassey and David Pattman travelled to Miami to participate in Bearers of Sacred Sound, an oral history project in collaboration with Florida International University, which culminated in a website. The website contains the oral stories of key Cuban and U.S.-born ritual musicians and priests who were key players in the growth of Oricha worship in Miami and beyond.
2018–Present
Bombo Productions launched Coro de Clave, a community choir inspired by a disappeared tradition created by Black communities in western Cuba. This initiative later led to the creation of Moving Voices UK, a charitable organisation supporting refugee women.
2019
Vicky Jassey published an article with the Smithsonian Centre for Folklife and Cultural Heritage titled The Rise of Female Batá Drummers foregrounding women’s batá drumming practice.
2020
Vicky Jassey completed her PhD in Ethnomusicology, Tambor Reverberations: Gender, Sexuality, and Change in Cuban Batá Performance. This ethnomusicological study examines how the sacred Afro‑Cuban batá drumming tradition—historically restricted to heterosexual, initiated men—has undergone significant shifts, challenging gender and sexuality taboos in Cuba.
2022–Present
Bombo Productions offers weekly Cuban percussion workshops in Hackney, teaching both folkloric and popular Cuban drumming.
2022–Present
Vicky Jassey and David Pattman founded Finca Ara Oko, a retreat centre in Spain hosting music and dance workshops.
2025 (Forthcoming)
Vicky Jassey and David Pattman travelled to Mexico and were invited into the local batá drumming community, where Vicky conducted research on the batá tradition’s development in Mexico. Vicky Jassey’s article The Voice of Añá in Mexico: A Musical Tradition Transplanted will be published by the Smithsonian in September 2025.
