Gabriele Poso

Gabriele Poso stands out globally as a composer, percussionist, and multi-instrumentalist whose work merges longstanding African and Afro-Latin musical foundations with contemporary technology, yielding an unbroken blend of jazz, dance music, Latin soul, and assorted folk forms. He maintains a longstanding partnership with Grammy-winning DJ and producer Osunlade while serving as music director for the Yoruba Soul Orchestra.

Born on Sardinia in Italy, Poso grew up in Lecce, the chief city of the Salento region. During childhood he developed a fixation on his parents’ record holdings, which centered on jazz, soul, Afro-Latin, and folk recordings; as he matured he attempted to reproduce those sounds, an endeavor that came to dominate his attention. He first took up guitar, acquiring core knowledge of harmony and rhythm; the resonant, wooden tone produced by striking the nylon-string guitar’s body then drew him toward percussion. At age 19 he entered structured training in Afro-Cuban percussion at Rome’s Timba School of Music with Roberto “Mamey” Evangelista, Italy’s foremost exponent of Afro-Cuban culture. Upon finishing those studies in 2001 he relocated to San Juan, Puerto Rico, to pursue further instruction at the Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico and later participated in master classes at Havana’s Escuela National de Arte in Cuba.

During his time in Puerto Rico he encountered Osunlade, and the pair immediately exchanged concepts and began joint work. In 2008 Osunlade handled engineering and executive production duties for Poso’s Yoruba Records debut Music from the Genuine World, an album on which the artist performed an extensive range of percussion alongside synth, guitar, and vocals. Reviews proved consistently positive, and European radio play enabled Poso to present his one-man percussion orchestra across continental club and festival stages. Later the same year Yoruba released the four-track digital EP Genuine Remixes featuring contributions from Zoetic, Afefe Iku, Ezel, and Boddhi Satva; the EP’s reception spurred additional DJ and consumer interest in the album, increasing its sales. Poso also served as primary percussionist on Louie Vega and Boddhi Satva’s “Life Is a Lesson,” drawn from the 2012 release Invocation, and contributed to several compilations. The next year he participated in Osunlade’s Man ov Wirdz. Poso’s own Roots of Soul appeared in 2012 on Infracom! Records; the collection paired original material with Afro-Latin jazz standards including “Tin Tin Deo” and “Afro Blue” as well as Bo Diddley’s “You Don’t Love Me,” and featured vocal performances by Osunlade, Nailah Porter, and Tanya Michelle. Press reaction proved strong, mirrored by international radio support; in Germany the album received the Best Jazz Independent Production 2012 award.

Poso spent a period based in Berlin, where he recorded the entirely self-produced suite Invocation for Agogo Records; global distribution followed via K7 in 2014. Gilles Peterson, drawn to its organic textures and modern electronic vocabulary, featured the recording regularly on Worldwide FM, encouraging other DJs worldwide to program it. The album also achieved club success, expanding Poso’s touring reach. That year he appeared on the Infracom compilation Infracom Presents 20+Years Rooted in Jazznotjazz and on Martin Iveson’s Cobra. Agogo followed with the 15-track remix collection Electric Invocation containing reworkings by Osunlade, Simbad, Gerardo Frisina, and additional artists. Two years later Poso joined the BBE roster; his first release for the label was the self-curated compilation Gabriele Posa Presents: Languages of Tambores. Subtitled “A Spiritual Journey Through the Cultural Heritage of Drums,” the set assembled historic and contemporary selections from Babatunde Olatunji, Bobby Matos, Dudu Tucci, Mustapha Tettey Addy, and others, with Poso contributing his own track “Cafe de Ochun.” His performance calendar, both solo and alongside Osunlade, encompassed numerous cities across Europe, the United States, and Asia. Following the birth of his son Viktor he briefly weighed abandoning music for steadier employment, yet his wife’s encouragement led him to continue. Late that year he returned to the studio to complete the 13-track Awakening, comprising concert staples in studio form alongside fresh compositions. The self-produced BBE album arrived after a pre-release reinterpretation of Roy Ayers’ “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” and reached listeners in March 2018. The subsequent year he issued Batik, which included guest vocalists Nailah Porter, Nina Rodriguez, Quetzal Guerrero, and Sofia Rollo.