Cochemea

For over 25 years, Cochemea has built a distinct career as a soloist, section player, and composer/arranger whose work is shaped by stories of survival and resistance. He is known for collaborating with artists across genres — from his long tenure with Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings to work with Kevin Morby, Run The Jewels, Jon Batiste, Amy Winehouse, The Roots, Archie Shepp, Mark Ronson, and Quincy Jones, among many others.

His forthcoming album on Daptone Records, Vol. 3: Ancestros Futuros, is the third volume in a series that includes All My Relations (2019) and Vol. 2: Baca Sewa (2021). Across his body of work, Cochemea interweaves the past, present, and future, engaging with time as speculative history — one that moves fluidly between memory and possibility.

Vol. 3: Ancestros Futuros is anchored in the cultural fabric that has nurtured Cochemea from the beginning. A California native of Yaqui ancestry, Cochemea describes a central part of his work as “accessing ancestral memory that comes in different forms — sometimes when you visit a place, sometimes in dreams... it’s in our DNA. For me, it’s about seeking wholeness in these zones of fracture.”

Cochemea’s musical and spiritual synthesis is made possible through his reverence for the horn and the music and traditions that precede him. His distinct voice as a saxophonist and flutist places him within a lineage of players who honor the past while blending dexterity with invention. Inspired by heroes like Eddie Harris, Yusef Lateef, Jim Pepper, and Gato Barbieri, he coaxes his instruments into intimate and expressive realms, bridging ancestral rhythmic traditions with forward-looking vision, creating a signature sound that is both deeply rooted and expansive.

About ArtYard

ArtYard is an incubator for creative expression and a catalyst for collaborations that reveal the transformational power of art. We are an interdisciplinary alternative contemporary art center comprised of an exhibition space, theater, and residency program, dedicated to presenting transformative artwork, fostering unexpected collaborations, and incubating original new work.

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