Music is in multi-instrumentalist and composer Cochemea Gastelum’s blood—he comes from a long line of musicians on both sides of his lineage. For over 25 years, he has built a distinct career as a soloist, section player, and composer/arranger, collaborating across genres—from his long tenure with Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings to work with Kevin Morby, Run The Jewels, Jon Batiste, Amy Winehouse, The Roots, Archie Shepp, Mark Ronson, and Quincy Jones.

His forthcoming Daptone Records release, Vol. 3: Ancestros Futuros, completes a trilogy with All My Relations (2019) and Vol. 2: Baca Sewa (2021), interweaving past, present, and future as speculative history. Recorded live to 8-track analog tape with Gabriel Roth (aka Bosco Mann) producing, the album is accompanied by a nine-minute Dolby Atmos film marking Cochemea’s evolution into visual storytelling. A California native of Yaqui ancestry, he describes 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.”

Stories of survival and resistance shape Ancestros Futuros, inspired by a Yaqui midwife who buried newborns’ navels in the earth so future generations could reclaim the land. His musical and spiritual synthesis—rooted in reverence for the horn—honors traditions while blending dexterity with invention. Inspired by Eddie Harris, Yusef Lateef, Jim Pepper, and Gato Barbieri, Cochemea bridges ancestral rhythm with forward-looking vision, creating a sound both deeply rooted and expansive.