Tego Agogo: Terry Gomes Cuts Loose With New Music

Terry Gomes has never sounded like an artist chasing the moment. If anything, the Ottawa-based composer and guitarist—one of the capital’s most inventive musical voices—moves with the calm confidence of someone who’s spent years building his own lane, then widening it. With an Honours Music degree from the University of Ottawa in classical guitar and composition, Gomes first emerged through the singer-songwriter tradition, releasing three albums before making a decisive pivot in 2012 toward the intricate, evocative instrumental work that would become his signature. Since then, his music has travelled far beyond the city limits: airplay on CBC across Canada, steady rotation on Stingray’s Smooth Jazz and JAZZ.FM91, and praise from outlets including Exclaim!, Cashbox Canada, The Whole Note, The Daily Vault, and FYI/Billboard.

Now, Gomes returns with “Tego Agogo,” the first single from his vibrant new EP 2 Open 3 Closed, out now—and it’s a track that arrives with its shoulders back and a grin you can hear. Brimming with cha-cha rhythm, vintage rock energy, and a gleeful awareness of its own ridiculousness, “Tego Agogo” is part satire, part tribute, and entirely fun: an invitation to stop overthinking and start moving, delivered through some of the most infectious grooves Gomes has ever committed to tape.

Even the title reads like a mission statement. “TEGO” is a blended word—“Te” from Terry, “go” from Gomes, the “A” from his middle name Anthony—then “Go-Go,” a nod to the clubs and dancers of the 1960s. It’s simultaneously self-portrait and love letter, a name that turns identity into rhythm. Gomes leans into the premise with lyrical swagger: “You want a banger you can dance to? / One to really shake your pants to / And groove along right in a trance too,” he sings, before the track flips into a joyful roll call of era-defining dances—the Watusi, the Frug, the Swim, the Mashed Potatoes, the Peppermint Twist, the Stroll, the Jerk—each one landing with the comedic timing of someone who’s been waiting his whole life to make exactly this song.

But beneath the humor is craft—serious, intentional, and deeply personal. “Tego Agogo” is a study in deliberate collision, fusing cha-cha and rock elements to reflect the dual streams of Gomes’s musical identity: the Latin and Caribbean influences of his Guyanese heritage running headlong into the ’60s rock and roll he’s loved for just as long. The track features percussionist Arien Villegas on drums and timbale, giving the rhythm section the bilingual authority the song demands, alongside Alex Mastronardi on bass and Nick Dyson on trumpet. It was recorded and mixed at Audio Valley Studio by Ottawa Faces award-winning engineer Steve Foley, then mastered by Jason Fee at Conduction Mastering—polished, punchy, and built to move bodies.

The playfulness extends beyond the audio. The accompanying music video—assembled over a month of footage, edits, and creative decisions—features Gomes himself dancing. “The dancing was a blast to do but took some practice before it was shot,” he admits, and that unguarded willingness to be seen is part of what makes this era of his work feel so alive. It’s also the mark of an artist who spent 26 years as an elementary school teacher before fully committing to music—someone who brings the discipline of a lifelong craftsman to every detail, but never forgets that joy is a technique too.