Bermudian Latin & Afro percussionist Keith Caisey could build a good sized wall out CDs featuring his music.

During an interview with The Royal Gazette he pulled out about fifty of these CDs including three of his own solo albums 'Walkabout', 'Osmosis' and 'Passion'.

"That's nothing," he said. "I have about 200 at home. These are just what I could carry on the bike."

But because he left school at the age of 13, he had life experience rather than a string of letters after his name to prove his mastery of percussion.

All that changed recently, when he received a Professorship in Ethnomusicology from Conjunta De Folklorica de Cuba in Havana, Cuba, awarded by the Cuban Ministry of Culture.

Mr. Caisey said it was Progressive Labour Party (PLP) Minister Dale Butler who put him in touch with the Cuban educators, and made it possible for him to get the Professorship.

Now Mr. Caisey hopes to take on drumming students in Bermuda.

"Sometimes people just show up at my door," he said."I had one father and son show up the other day. I spent some time showing the son the different percussion instruments. At the end of the evening, the son said, 'this is what I want to do'.

Mr. Caisey, 60, started performing at the age of 13, with his father, Howard Caisey, also a percussionist.

"My father was a percussionist working in the Jungle Room, alongside Harold Webb, Robert Smith, and others," said Mr. Caisey. "The Jungle Room featured the Al Harris Trio.

"The Jungle Room was right next to Casablanca Coffee shop across from Caisey's Bar."

Mr. Caisey said he found the drums so alluring that he left school at the age of 13, to pursue his passion. "I left school at an early age because the drums were calling me," he said. "It is amazing the freedom I was given at such an early age.

"The first place I played was probably the Clayhouse Inn, performing with my brother Anthony Caisey who has just retired from the Bermuda Fire Service. I played the congas."

In the 1960s he worked with such bands as Neptune's Domain and the Bermuda Folklore Company.

But as he grew older he yearned to see the world. In 1969, he got his wish when he moved to New York to play with the Dr. Barbara Ann Teer's National Black Theatre Institute of Action Arts.

One of their gigs was the ground-breaking 1970 First Congress of African People at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, where such people as Louis Farrakhan, a very young Rev. Jesse Jackson, Malcolm X and Angela Davis spoke and performed.

"Obviously, Farrakhan was going to become very popular," said Mr. Caisey. "On the day he arrived at Morehouse College no one was allowed outside. The hallways were swept clean regardless of colour."

Mr. Caisey spent more than a year touring with the National Black Theatre.

"At that age, New York was frightening," he said. "The people at the National Black Theatre became my family, but I was overwhelmed by the violence that took place in the city on a daily basis. But culturally, it was strong in New York."

He said he learned a lot from the different ethnic communities in New York, particularly the Puerto Ricans.

"They were playing music similar to what my father played in the day," he said.

He went on to live in England, France and eventually Australia, only returning to Bermuda briefly during those years.

He toured with Gladys Knight and the Pips, Arthur Connolly and The Rolling Stones, among many others.

"The world started to open up and I started to see how diverse the genre was that I had chosen," he said. "I left Bermuda at an early age thinking I knew a lot, then I realised I didn't know anything and started to learn from the masters.

"I was taken under the wing of a lot of great players."

Mr. Caisey has appeared on records such as 'Underneath the Colours' with Inxs, Mariah Carey, Australian rockband Sherbert and with singer Sammy Gaha.

He was also a member of the Australian music band Ayers Rock' for a time. He spent the 1990s working in Queensland, Australia, performing and teaching workshops. He really made a name for himself Down Under and became proficient at playing traditional instruments like the didgeridoo.

In fact, he became so good at them, that he was awarded an ambassadorship by the aboriginal people of Australia.

He was also elected writer full member of the Australian Performing Rights Association (APRA).

Mr. Caisey appears in several different music documentaries including 'Vessels of the Spirit' and 'Bermuda's Rhythmic Heritage'.

But he said with all the travelling he did, there were sacrifices to be made.

"You do have to sacrifice family life," he said, "especially if you have been on the road for 37 years. I was away from my family in Bermuda for a long time. In your heart they are always there. It helps when they share your passion."

After performing at the 2000 Sydney summer Olympics, his family convinced him to finally move back to Bermuda after several decades abroad.

Back in Bermuda, for several years he ran a company in Dockyard called 'Rhythm Nation'.

"It was the first of its kind in Bermuda," he said. "We took children from the streets and taught them drum rythmns. All the tourists that came in off the ships were invited to do drum work and learn the samba dance, and other things.

"We had clothes for them to dress up in. We would have 45 or 50 people at a time. It was a reflection of what I was doing in Australia."

He said being back in Bermuda has not been without its challenges.

"Bermuda is very cut off from the music world," he said. "You have to practice every day in Bermuda, because there aren't as many opportunities to perform."

He said at the height of his career abroad, he would sometimes be performing at three different venues, a night.

In Bermuda, it's much harder to find places to perform.

"I worked at Hawkins Island," he said. "It was one of the greatest things happening in Bermuda because it featured almost all Bermudian artists. It was something very well done."

The company that ran the Hawkins Island Pirates Nights, Bermuda Island Cruises, suspended operations in 2007.

"That will always be greatly missed," Mr. Caisey said. "I think something like this should be brought back. It gave us Bermudian artists a vehicle for performing. Everything is limited in Bermuda."

Now he is diversifying by teaching, writing plays, and songs, and working with other local artists to put out albums.

"But it is not something that is happening at the rate I want it to happen," he said. "It is a little frustrating. You find that everyone in Bermuda has to work two jobs. The majority of my life I have worked at doing what I do. I think it is a birthright."

To contact Mr. Caisey telephone 737-6632