ILÉ WA (2024-currently) is a fusion music project between Afro-Cuban jazz and world music, whose words mean ‘our home’ in the Yoruba language, a culture coming from many different African tribes that, together with others such as the Congo or Arara, arrived in countries like Cuba through the slave trade. These black people allowed the formation and development of many identities, becoming the main ethnic groups in Africa, and placing their language in a place of great power.

We want to transmit, as we find it very interesting to bring other cultures (and other more distant countries if the opportunity arises) to Spain and Europe, that union between roots, tradition, and the contemporary; between the music of our ancestors and the music of today. And we also aim to rescue the oral tradition, being very respectful and exquisite with its value, not for commercial purposes, but for transmission to new generations. We see, listen and interpret, although not in an exact way, because we believe that there, in that honesty, lies the magic. And we want to make this journey, towards the recognition of these other parts of our culture: highlighting the liberation that this approach produces in us, the discoveries that we ourselves make of ourselves, and reconstructing old identities as well as building new, more diverse, more ‘Afro-identities’.

We will therefore position ourselves, from Spain, with an intense and direct look at Africa and Cuba, giving voice to their history, to their ancient songs and dances, to their moves, to their rhythms, from which later emerges that Afro-Cuban impact that moves us so much. A truly captivating mix that lends itself to an ever-present memory, a living folklore. But also a welcoming home for the new creations and ways of life of these fresh future generations. And with the humble pretension of being the almost perfect representation of the needs, of the declamation of the people, of the street, of the social. We develop this project with a racial and intergenerational perspective.