Gabriel Sullivan has come a long way since performing a System of a Down cover at a middle-school talent show in eighth grade.
Since then he's played in hard-core, metal and punk-rock bands. Had a brief run with melodically driven instrumental music. Graduated from Canyon Del Oro in 2006. Played bass and sang for the punk-rock group American Black Lung. Discovered his deep, powerful singing voice. Formed a folk band. Played at the Rialto with Calexico in 2009. Formed Gabriel Sullivan & the Taraf De Tucson. Went to Paris, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic and Switzerland to back French singer Marianne Dissard and play sets of his own with Mostly Bears' Brian Lopez.
And recently began a monthly Balkumbia gypsy and cumbia dance night at Club Congress, which his band headlines.
Gabriel Sullivan & The Taraf De Tucson has a large, unique sound, filled with acoustic and electric guitars, horns, violin, a standard drum set, an array of Latin percussion including a timbale, a latin drum usually heard in salsa music, and topping it off with his powerful and gravelly - resembling Tom Waits - English and Spanish voice.
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The journey that led to the sound he has actually started in sixth grade when he got a CD by '90 punk rock band Rancid, a skateboard and a guitar all in the same week. Life's never been the same.
"We all found out about punk rock and Pantera and metal and everything that would piss our parents off," said the 23-year-old Sullivan. "It was a very conscious decision that we all bought instruments. And we sucked for a long time, but we kept doing it."
He was playing in the hard-core band Te Amor in middle school when he first heard about the musicians at CDO.
"I would hear about all of the older guys, like Dave and Orin playing in Thorsh," he recalls about Orin Shochat and Dave Mertz of Holy Rolling Empire. "There was always these bands and musicians that were older than us that we looked up to. So that was all the more reason to keep doing it."
Like many CDO musicians, it didn't take very long for him to make Skrappy's Youth Collective a second home.
Sullivan and his friends started booking and playing shows on the northwest side at Gameworks arcade in the Foothills Mall. "We made a whole venue out of that place because we didn't have anywhere else to play," Sullivan said.
There was a noticeable shift in culture at CDO during his four years. Most of his friends had graduated; his best friend Eric Parisi left school early to tour with American Black Lung.
He doesn't have to search for a spot to showcase his nine-piece band, which includes his brother Jake Sullivan, 21, and Connor Gallaher, 20, 2008 CDO graduates.
"He's my go-to guy whenever there is a high-profile show," said Club Congress booking director David Slutes. "We represent Tucson and he allows us to do that."
Sullivan plays electric and acoustic guitar with the Taraf de Tucson, which comes from a mixture of influences. On top of his punk-rock roots, southern Romanian Gypsy music and cumbia - a Latin fast pace music style - have come to dominate his sound.
He is finishing work on an album recorded at Loveland Studios and mixed at Wavelab Studios, the same place Amos Lee recorded his 2011 release "Mission Bell," which debuted at number one on the Billboard charts.
Upcoming shows
• What: JusticePalooza concert to benefit the American Friends Service Committee. The lineup includes Gabriel Sullivan, Vanessa Lundon and Tell Me Something Good, The Possibles and Seashell Radio.
• When: 6 p.m. April 24
• Where: The Hut, 305 N. Fourth Ave.
• Cost: $8 suggested donation.
• What: Balkumbia, Gypsy and Cumbia Dance Night, with Taraf de Tucson, DJ Dirty Verbs and Salvador Duran y Los Mijitos. Age 21 and over.
• When: 9 p.m. April 29.
• Where: Club Congress, 311 E. Congress St.
• Cost: $5.
