For over 25 years, American saxophonist and composer Cochemea has worked across genres, drawing on his Yaqui heritage and Mexican roots to create music that connects ancestral traditions with contemporary sounds. His trilogy, All My Relations (2019), Vol. 2: Baca Sewa (2021) and Vol. 3: Ancestros Futuros, explores the relationship between past, present and future, weaving together memory, spirituality and imagination into a powerful, rhythm-driven sound world.
On the opening night of the Stockholm Jazz Festival, Cochemea hosted a fiesta of percussion that made you want to move your body.
The band slowly builds up the mood and immerses you in an ancestral world. As a result, you get this magnetic musical witchcraft that acts as a driving force for the whole experience.
Worth noting is that the music feels both spiritual and accessible. Oftentimes, spirituality can be met with a slight frown or even an immediate label: “it’s not for me.” Cochemea’s music strikes this balance and invites you to explore.
The backdrop showed distant landscapes of arid lands that many of us have never seen but can only imagine. Exploring the themes of past, present and future, Cochemea’s music achieves something quite rare. It takes you to places you’ve never been to. I could practically feel the dry wind on my skin and soak in the burning sun.
Rhythm is everything. The interplay of rhythms across all the instruments, not just the percussion, takes you on a positively hypnotising trip. Cochemea’s music is an absolute treat for a tap dancer like myself. You can feel how each tune draws you further into Cochemea’s world.
No need to be a dancer to jump headfirst into his appealing universe, though. The best way to immerse yourself is to let the music guide your body and flow with it. The head just starts nodding, and the feet start stomping. An extra plus for the standing stage at Kulturhuset Studio. The seated experience would physically limit you from moving along.
I strongly encourage you to give Cochemea’s magnetism a try in the most mundane setting – cooking in the kitchen or washing the dishes. You might be surprised.
