Brownsville…Do you like Jazz?
Brownsville Student Union hosted RGV Jazz Collective as part of ‘Union Unplugged’ series
UTRGV Student Union gave a brief afternoon respite to Vaqueros in the form of smooth jazz, courtesy of the RGV Jazz Collective during Union Unplugged, a music series showcasing local artists.
Students gathered from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday at the Student Union Veranda in Brownsville to enjoy music performed by three UTRGV students.
Ulysses de Leon, a masters student in guitar performance, Carlos Hernandez, a music education junior, and David Guiterrez, a masters student in horn performance represented the RGV Jazz Collective.
This was the first Union Unplugged event for the musicians, but the trio is not new to playing for a crowd.
“This is my first time playing ‘Unplugged’, it’s definitely not my first gig, but… I’m excited to be here,” Gutierrez said. “Typically, jazz gigs are really loud and you’re up on a big stage, but I like the closer, [intimate space] that we’re playing in right now, it’s a very neat place to be.”
Over the course of the two hour set, the Jazz Collective riffed off each other in a series of musical improvisations that gave the usually busy veranda an uncharacteristically serene atmosphere.
“All of [our music] is improvised,” Hernandez said. “We learn the melodies by transcription. So we listen to these old recordings that people have made and then learn it by ear. We get here, say the name of the tune and go for it.”
The members of RGV Jazz Collective discovered their musical passions through various music genres. For de Leon, his first musical passion was heavy metal rock music.
“I got into jazz in middle school,” he said. “I was a big rocker then, but then I started to transition out of it. I started listening to a lot of jazz musicians, mostly neo soul. I didn’t have a teacher, but jazz is a dialect…you learn it by listening to it.”
For Vaqueros eager to learn a bit of ‘jazz dialect’, visit RGV Jazz Collective’s website for updates on upcoming performances.
