Bumbac Joe

Bio

Bumbac Joe, né Leopoldo Bello — Lima-born Venezuelan who Madrid embraced as an adopted son — is a DJ/producer whose beats and grooves summon listeners into the fire of Latin American dance. Rich with the sonorous outpourings of his travels, Bumbac Joe's music erupts with rhythms of Peruvian Festejo, Venezuela's folkloric Golpe Larense, jazzy Salsa Brava from Caracas, afrobeat mixed with the particular calypso of El Callao, and mestizo flamenco from the streets of Madrid.

Taking his sampling, looping and remixing into the studio, this beatmaker — now based in Chicago — transforms folkloric rhythms into topical beats and brings marginalized music onto the contemporary dance floor. The result is a unique musical mélange, a bricolage that seizes the soul of beat programming.