At age 14, in the rural Devon countryside town of Tavistock, (UK) Edd Bateman was sitting in his bedroom playing heavy metal basslines. Suddenly his Mum arrived and said you need to go to the next-door neighbour’s house right now and take your bass amp. ‘Chimanimani’, who were a Sungura and Chimurenga dance band from Harare, Zimbabwe had just arrived in England and were there auditioning for a bass player to join their upcoming national tour. Despite Edd’s youthful inexperience and limited knowledge of theory he got the job and did the first 2 hour show just 11 days later. Within a month the band played together at African nightclubs in London, universities and then Glastonbury festival. Edd worked with Chimanimani for 6 years.

In his early 20s he took the first of many trips and tours to West Africa and instantly fell in with the famous Cissokho family of griots from Southern Senegal and began his deep training performing regular 5 hour shows with Solo Cissokho, Seckou Keita, Sadio Cissokho and the whole Dialikunda family as well as on-stage guest spots with Cheikh Lo, Orchestra Baobab and Super Diamono.

Now back in the UK and with thousands of concerts under his belt with bands from all over the world he developed his skills serving as bandleader for ‘London Astrobeat Orchestra’ and ‘Edd Bateman’s West African Love Affair’. In the lockdown he saw the need to begin documenting the brilliant African bass guitar styles he’s dedicated his life to learning and so founded the World Music Method to share this knowledge with the world.