black banana is more than a band.  It is a history, a culture, a tribute to all the artists I've worked with and learned from.

 

In the beginning, I played Reggae with Jikke and Stonefish Posse in Atlanta, and soul music with SoulCraft, which I started with Berhan Casa in Little 5 Points, a neighborhood in Atlanta. 

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After a brief, dalliance with jazz as the bass player for Prism in upstate New York, I returned to California.  After working on reggae drum and bass with George Cadle for a few years, I played bass for Jativa, a reggae band with latin flavor.  George also played with Jativa, and he and I started gathering some pieces together to make a band.

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The first artist we backed was Lisa Tucker.  At that time we were doing Pop, R&B, Soul, and Rock, music.  But trust me, we were a Reggae band.

 

The original members were wale bassie on bass, George Cadle on drums, Quaku Dixon on keyboards, Theo Diaz on keyboards and guitar, and Taro on guitar.  We later added Godfree Paget on percussions, and Demetrius played drums one crucial gig at Spaghetini's.  

 

When Lisa went on to international fame, we joined up with Doc Crew.  Theo mostly played guitar in those days, and Brian Mcintosh played keyboards alongside the legendary Tony Byrd.  Then I joined Serious Business, a Luciano tribute band, with Stevie Rankin on lead vocals and my dear friend Suzy on background vocals.  That band was indeed serious, and also featured Taro on guitar and Beho on drums.  Some video from that band is posted on this site under vintage video.

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We now feature Ant Graham on keyboards, a guy Theo introduced me to.  I've been playing with him here and there for over 10 years now (and I still have no idea what he is doing, but I like it!).  We have Cameron on drums, who Ant introduced me to 10 years ago.  Cameron brings left handed energy and restlessness to his craft that I really like .  We are backing really wonderful singers, lately at post & beam, a fly spot in Baldwin Hills.

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Our first singer at post & beam, in the Fall of 2019, was Mary Jane Harris.  She is a wonderful singer/songwriter and visual artists who will be back. 

 

We started out with incredible support from Bless the Air, featuring Karma the Artist, a gifted singer/songwriter and actress, Don Houston on drums, Talk $how blessing the mic, and Tiniji Star, also a gifted singer/singwriter.

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Stone's Juke Joint partnered with us to present Kolby Cordell (a magnificent singer and showman), Pebbles (she will make you cry), Nyke Kid (smoov vocals),  Captain Kurt on drums, Lex on bass, and DC on keyboards.

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Mary Jane Harris introduced us to Bri Markey (a gifted, natural vocalist from whom music pours like water),  Bri brought us Ivan, a gifted young bassist.  Zarian Hadley introduced us to Maya Smith (an amazingly gifted accomplished vocalist), who we can't wait to present once the world gets past this.

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Finally, we've done a few gigs with my niece Imani, a talented young singer who turned us on to Lucky Daye, and our new friend from Atlanta, the multi-talented Jache Sharnise, who sings beautifully, writes heartfelt songs, and she is a trained dancer.

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We are excited to be working in the studio with some of these artists, and you'll hear new music here first.