Cochemea

The journey to Vol 3: Ancestros Furturous has seen the saxophonist weave serpentine loops between culture and creativity. Over the last few years Cochemea has explored the roots of his heritage, suturing searing polyrhythms to threads of spiritual jazz and funk. As he nears the completion of a trio of albums that reach into the past and grasp towards the future, Gastelum takes the listener deeper into the caverns and canyons of his mind. The crux of Cochemea’s music has always been rhythm. As much as his sax lines set the songs alight, the tinder that stokes the set is always the undulating percussion. His assembled players, a potent octet that’s composed of local NY percussionists and fellow members of the Daptone family, keep the songs simmering. Atop the tumble of sticks, hands, and the insistent swish of shakers, the songs find their inner dance; a propulsion that pushes the albums along like a river.

Atop the tumble he interweaves the foundations of his fusions. The new album culls from Aztec cosmology, the eternal fire of Eddie Harris and Yusef Lateef, and the call and response of oral traditions. The record traces generational scars. It recontextualizes tradition. The culminating document of his years-long journey acts as the delta in the wake of a flood of influences, parsing the most potent strains of the past. The listener is lead through the morning fog of “Transmisión del Soñar,” the fluorescent flicker of “Pyramid of the Sun.” The title track is steeped in a feeling of homecoming, a warmth that stretches backward and forward in time, something the album works to accomplish at every turn. Though it all Cochemea’s sax embroiders its ache into every moment, acting as narrator, muse, and mentor all at once; urging the voices and rhythms to dig deeper. On its own, Vol 3 stands as a stunning accomplishment, but as the cap stone on his trilogy, the record becomes something more than just a singular achievement.

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