Bumbac Joe

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. Winner of “Best Local Dance Producer 2016” Chicago’s Reader Best of Chicago poll, 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.
"Bumbac Joe is a master sound storyteller. Beyond words, he’s able to paint bright pictures of life in travels and has produced a body of work that amps up jazz with Latintronic samples, sets up Afrobeat to dance with disco and funks up a chant-worthy house mambo bomba. " —gozamos.com
In summer of 2016, Sonorama Records released a 7” vinyl with a remix of his song “Hot Revolution”, previously released in 2015 on the EP Hot Revolution , and the track “Festejo Trucupey” featuring singer and percussionist Juan Tomas Martinez, this record is sold out in UK, Germany and Japan.
For the first edition of Ruido Fest (2015) he was the only dj act from the Midwest area featured in this Festival. Bumbac Joe has shared turntables with Armand Van Helden, El Freaky (Colombia), Roy Davis Jr and Rio Bamba (Dutty Artz- NY), among others, and has been featured alongside performers such as Shantel & The Bucovina Club Orkestar, Aterciopelados, Sinkane, and Canteca de Macao across the globe — Bogota, Lima, Madrid, Amsterdam, Amberes, Barcelona, Minneapolis, Portland. In addition, his original tracks can be found on various compilation discs: Venezuela Dance vol. 1 (Gozadera Records); Banti. Tarifa Summer Sessions (Banti records); 360 Noches (Altamira Suites); Soundial Loft[esque] Compilation (Soundial Records); and a remix in Nueva Onda Nueva, Electronic Aldemaro (FNB Grabaciones).
He is a regular guest in the most important global bass-world beat monthly party in Chicago, Cumbiasazo with an audience of 1000 assistants in each edition. While living in Spain, he supplied the electronic beats for the Spanish band, El Sombrero del Abuelo, collaborating in their disc Sistole y Diastole , and touring with them for two years throughout Europe. When he wasn’t touring with the band, he could be found spinning in the best of Madrid’s clubs, like La Boca del Lobo.
Using Demetrio de Ccs as his moniker, in 2006 he released his first original album, Bar Domestico a Domicilio (Domestic Bar), on iTunes and Amazon.com with the support of José Luis Pardo, a.k.a. DJ Afro (ex Los Amigos Invisibles guitarist). Now he is finishing his new album and working on the project The Combo Parlant, a new way to present his music in a live show with musicians on stage.