Jose Angel Blanco WADPRO

Jose Angel Blanco WADPRO SHOWS

Jose Angel WADPRO is Percussionist, Producer, DJ, Beat-maker & Sound Designer. His past collaborations includes Omara Portuondo, José Luis Cortes “El Tosco”, Carlos Sarduy, Harold Lopez-Nussa, Rolando Luna, Cucurucho Valdés, Telmary and many more. WADPRO has been part of the Cuban electronic and hip hop scene since 2001 and was the musical director of the hip hop festival “Puños Arriba” for two years.

Jose Angel comes from a family who owns the oldest set of the Cuban religious Batá drum set. He grew up surrounded by uncles and neighbours practicing Santería, and with the sound of the sacred drumming.

They taught him music before he could read and write, and by three years he was already playing the traditional Batá and build his own drum set from beer boxes and anything he could find with sound. Later, with technology and his incredible MPC playing, he developed a personal semi electronic sound, mixed with traditional instruments like Cajón, Congas and Batá as well as his live recordings of the cream of Afro Cuban Jazz musicians he works with in Cuba.

In his youth he got truly influenced by J Dilla AKA Jay Dee (the American record producer and rapper who emerged in the mid-1990s underground hip hop scene in Detroit), and mixing ideas from his inspiration with tropical styles, his own sound became what it is today.

Personalities like the British Giles Peterson, and a load of international musicians and DJ’s have already discovered WADPRO’s tremendous talent and work.

INTERVIEW AT RADIO JAZZ

UPCOMING ALBUMS

On the album OBBÁ AÑÁ, WADPRO re-invents Afro Cuban beats mixing Afro Cuban drumming, Latín electrónica, Afro jazz, Afro Latin and Cuban chill out, in a wild, trance setting flow. The avantgardistic multi artist presents a postmodern patchwork, mixing profound spiritual languages with Jazzistic rituals and futuristic beats, resulting in an explosive performance - a hip, contemporary, stylish, hyper energetic funky expression.

The album IWA is based on ancient Santeria chants song in the oldest existing Yoruba language, mixed with an electronic setting with live recorded acoustic elements played by some of Cubas top percussionists from the spiritual world of traditional Rumba.

Both IWA and OBBÁ AÑÁ will be released on One World Records by the summer 2022.