COCHEMEA

Cochemea Gastelum, known to audiences as Cheme, built his reputation as a saxophonist across the San Diego underground before joining Creedle, the cult rock band formed in 1991 from the breakup of local acts The Pull Toys, Daddy Long Legs, Holy Love Snakes and If Tomorrow. He appears on the band’s 1990s run of albums for Cargo Music/Headhunter Records, including “When The Wind Blows,” which added his alto saxophone to the lineup. The group reunited at San Diego’s Casbah on December 30, 2007, playing the same room where they first performed.

His strongest body of recorded work came with Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, the soul institution on Daptone’s orbit. Gastelum contributed from 2009 and became a full member in 2013, holding the tenor and alto saxophone chairs until 2018 through the band’s most acclaimed era. He also played alto saxophone with Robert Walter’s 20th Congress, where his use of electronics on the horn placed him among recent practitioners of saxophonics, the craft of reshaping saxophone sound through effects units alongside figures like Skerik and Ben Ellman.

Beyond Creedle, the Dap-Kings and 20th Congress, Gastelum has continued to record and perform widely, with Creedle members going on to work with The Greyboy Allstars and Roger Waters, and with collaborators stepping into his chair at some Creedle live dates. Few horn players move so fluently between soul revues, experimental rock and effects-driven jazz-funk.