Zemog
El Gallo Bueno
Music
Discography:
Abraham Gomez-Delgado aka, Zemog EL Gallo Bueno describes his music and life as “Other-Rican” where the ‘Rican’ can stand in for Puerto Rican, American, South American, Nuyorican or... The music draws from popular Afro-Puerto Rican, Cuban and South American Rhythms but is also inspired from German Cosmic music, Japanese Buto Dance, Punk Rock, Classical Minimalism and American Free Jazz. Sung in both Spanish and English, the songs deal with issues such as immigration, racism, the power of dancing together, living in-between and the balance of imbalance in life.
Abraham Gomez-Delgado is a Brooklyn, New York based Puerto Rican born/Peruvian composer, visual artist, educator, band-leader and multi-instrumentalist. He leads the Z3mog Trio and the Zemog El Gallo Bueno Octette as well as his one man band the Zemog Eje.
Zemog El Gallo Bueno has performed in venues such as the Blue Note, Mass MoCA, Montreal Jazz Festival, Celebrate Brooklyn, Joe's Pub, Jazz Gallery, S.O.B’s, Lincoln Center, BAM, Chicago World Music Festival, Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe, Zebulon and Camaradas El Barrio.
Abraham Gomez-Delgado first had dreams about roosters as a child. Growing up in rural Puerto Rico, he watched his grandfather chop off the head of a rooster followed by the cliché headless frenzy. His grandmother plucked the bird and chopped it open. Upon watching the guts spill out of the rooster, Gomez heaved like never before. “It was the first time I saw death up close,” remembers Gomez.
Soon, his family moved to the U.S. and, by coincidence, lived in a house converted from a chicken coop. From his bedroom he could climb into the attic and see the original coop roof. He began having dreams that he was a rooster that could hover. “The first time I woke up believing that it was real. The second time, again I was fooled,” says Gomez. “Each time I was disappointed when I could not hover. The third time, in my dream I woke up and it was real. So when I really woke up I was thwarted once again.”
"I soon realized that playing music with others was like the feeling I was having in my recurring dream. The impossible hover became real. Zemog EL Gallo Bueno became my way to hover together with others."
"Twisting genres at will and singing with skewed humor. But it's largely unplugged, taking the horn section and guitar vamps of Puerto Rican salsa and bending them by way of Mingus and Sun Ra."
— New York Times
"Zemog has developed an original, satisfying spin on Latin rock that reveals an understanding of the Plena and Bomba and a desire to subvert [stereotypical ideas of 'Latin music']."
— Downbeat
"(The Yo You Me Tú Trilogy) is an ambitious album and it shows in the intensely chiseled harmonic progressions that inform the pieces throughout this wonderful repertoire. I think that this is an album that herald's the coming of a new age of Latin Jazz (for want of a better term)."
— Latin Jazz Network
"Dense rhythmic structures, avant brass and reed solos, vocals, and unpredictable arrangements make Zemog a challenging listening experience. Take the challenge; this is provocative music."
— Billboard
Z3mog Trio - Cemi Cumbia 2019
BIO
Zemog El Gallo Bueno - Live Compilation
Zemog El Gallo Bueno - Cemi Cumbia 2017
Zemog El Gallo Bueno - Poncho Para Los Dos
Zemog EL Gallo Bueno - Hueco (360 Video)
Z3mog Trio - Que No 2019
Zemog El Gallo Bueno - Balance Imbalance
Zemog El Gallo Bueno 8 - Maldita Cancion 2019
"Abraham Gomez-Delgado, the songwriter who leads Zemog El Gallo Bueno, is one of Latin music’s truest oddballs. His rhythm section, his voice and his sense of melody often draw on his Puerto Rican and Peruvian heritage, along with the rest of the Caribbean. But elsewhere, electric guitars aren’t shy about distortion and horns bring the angularity of jazz, sometimes turning the songs polytonal. And his lyrics free-associate with thoughts of family, love, politics, science and cyberspace.."
— Jon Perelis (recent), New York Times
BASIC INFO
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Years active:
2002-present
Website:
Genres:
Latin, Avant-Latin Jazz, World
Origin:
Brooklyn, New York
Labels:
Afinque X Records
Mr. Bongo Records
Aagoo
Z3mog Trio
Abraham Gomez-Delgado
Voice, guitar, percussion, Horn
Maria Christina Eisen
Baritone and Tenor Saxophones
Chris Stromquist
Percussion
Olia Toporovsky
Live Video Art
Zemog El Gallo Bueno
Octette
Abraham Gomez-Delgado
Voice, guitar, percussion
Maria Christina Eisen
Baritone and Tenor Saxophones
Jackie Coleman
Trumpet
Reinaldo Dejesus
Congas
Juancho Herrera
Voice, guitar, mandolin, cuatro
Benjamin Willis
bass, upright bass
Ted Nordlander
guitar
Chris Stromquist
percussion
Bryan Vargas
guitar
Pablo Bencid
percussion
CONTACT
Booking: Olia Toporovsky
Press: Rock Paper Scissors, Ron Kadish
Ph: 812.339.1195