I'm an Apulian percussionist, composer and music producer.
Specialized in Afro-Cuban, Afro-Brazilian and Arab music and rhythmic cultures, my style combines these musical traditions with the sounds and rhythms of contemporary European and Afro-American music.

I began to play and study drums during my adolescence with Paolo Lorusso, Maurizio Dei Lazzaretti, Pietro Iodice, developing subsequently an interest in ethnic percussion instruments. I studied percussion at the Conservatory of Bari withBeniamino Forestiere, and began to learn the rhythms of Northern-Africa with the Algerian Moussa Belkacemi.
I started Afro-Cuban culture studies in Italy with Giovanni Imparato and broadened my skills in Havana (Cuba) with Josè Luis Quintana "Changuito", Irian Lopez and Manley "Piri" Lopez (Los Chinitos), Antonio Urdaneta and Michel Aldama (Conjunto Folklorico Nacional de Cuba), Amadito Dedeu (Grupo Clave y Guaguancò), in New York with John Amira and in Rome with Reynaldo Hernandez Ramirez.
I attended some clinics of Afro-Cuban chant with Gregorio "El Goyo" Hernandez, of Brazilian percussion with Gilson Silveira and Kal dos Santos and in Burkina Faso (West Africa) I studied the Mandinga rhythmic tradition of tama with Baba Kouyaté and balafon with Adama Djabaté.

I became Drum Circle Facilitator after earning the VMC 6-Day Graduate, training with Arthur Hull, the creator of the VMC-Village Music Circles method and the Italian mentor Harshil Filippo Chiostri.

Under the Batimba brand I organize and facilitate Drum Circles, interactive and experiential rhythmic events that anyone can participate in, aimed at corporate, social, educational and cultural settings.

I'm specialized in conga, bongò, timbales, batà ritual drums and darbouka techniques, my percussion set includes a broad array of instruments from Africa, South-America, Caribbean, Middle East, Mediterranean area, frequently making use also of electronic and sampled sounds.
During my activity, I have played multiple styles, including folkloric and popular Cuban music, traditional and modern Arab music, West African music, Brazilian music, jazz, funk, Italian songwriting, vocal polyphony and choral music.

My own project Cesare Pastanella Afrodiaspora musically explores the traces of the African diaspora to America, present in most of today's music from both sides of the Atlantic. With this project I published in 2019 the album The round trip for the label AlfaMusic. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I have also produced and released under my own name the albums Music for Tales vol. 1 and vol. 2 (Angapp Music 2021-2022), containing original compositions written for the plays "Il Viaggio di Arjun" and "Badù Re, anzi Leone" by Lucia Zotti.

I'm also member of the Kaleido Sea trio, with whom I perform as a concert artist and published the album Buena ventura (Angapp Music 2019).

I'm drummer and percussionist of Tavernanova, historic Apulian world music band that made its debut in the 1990s, with whom I reunited in 2023 to produce the unreleased single Tredici lune.
From 1999 to 2015, I was percussionist and co-author of the fenale vocal group Faraualla.

In summer 2017 I participated to the Italian tour of the Brazilian songwriter and guitarist Toquinho, together with the Brazilian singer Selma Hernandes.
Over the years, I have also collaborated with Paolo Fresu Sextet, Gianluigi Trovesi, Bobby McFerrin, Bruno Tommaso, Antonello Salis, Maria Pia De Vito, Faraualla, Tavernanova, Mirko Signorile, Selma Hernandes, Joy Garrison, Luis "Aspirina" Chacòn, Francisco Ulloa Pachito, Guillermo "El Negro" Triana, Juan De Dios Ramos, Gregorio "El Goyo" Hernandez, Miguel Enriquez, Toups Bebey & Le Spirit Pan-African Brass Company, Farafina, Pino Minafra, Evan Parker, Pierre Favre, Javier Girotto, Roberto Ottaviano, Nicola Conte, Tony Esposito, Radiodervish, Fabrizio Bosso, Gianluca Petrella, Serena Brancale, Davide Santorsola, Ensemble Terræ, Abbes Boufrioua, Giovanni Imparato, Mario Rosini.

I participated in numerous international festivals, among which Time in Jazz (Berchidda), Rumori Meditterranei (Roccella Jonica), Europa Jazz Festival (Noci), Talos Festival (Ruvo di Puglia), Premio Tenco (Sanremo), Sconfini (Rome), Notti di Stelle (Bari), Biennale dei Giovani Artisti dell'Europa e del Mediterraneo (Rome), Il Violino e la Selce (San Benedetto del Tronto), Disma Music Show (Rimini), Roma incontra il mondo, Venice Carnival, Concerti al Palazzo del Quirinale (Rome), Villa Celimontana (Rome), Etnofestival (Republic of Sanmarino), Dubrovnik Jazz Festival (Dubrovnik, Croatia), International Babylon Festival (Babylon, Iraq), Frammenti and SR2 Kulturpicknick (Saarbrücken, Germany), Voicemania (Vienna, Austria), Brighton Festival (UK), Festival D'Alba La Romaine (France), Suoni delle Dolomiti (Madonna di Campiglio), “Timbalaye” Festival Internacional de Rumba Cubana (Havana, Cuba), UNEAC-Union de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba (Havana, Cuba), El Sabado de La Rumba en el Palenque (Havana, Cuba), Festival Internacionàl de Percussiò de Catalunya (Barcelona, Spain), Festival Européen Musique Renaissance (Amboise, France), Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Addis Abeba (Ethiopia), Les Pouilles jouent, l’Italie danse (Paris, France), Focus Italie (Brussells, Belgium).

I collaborate with the Teatro Kismet OperA of Bari, writing music for the piéce "Gilgamesh" by Teresa Ludovico, "Il Viaggio di Arjun" and "Badù Re, anzi Leone" by Lucia Zotti.
Besides my concert and recording activities, I also collaborate as percussionist in workshops and courses of Afro-Cuban, Afro-Brazilian and Arab dance, I teach Cuban, Arab, Brazilian rhythms and leaded the workshop Afro-American Percussions whose goal was to make music practically and directly with people of any age, who approached for the first time to the rhythm.