Play that funky music!
Live jazz served as the soundtrack to students and faculty lining up for free tacos and drinks. The College of Liberal and Creative Arts hosted its last Jazz & Tacos event of the semester on Wednesday in the Creative Arts Building, as part of the LCA Live series. It featured funk jazz band Atta Kid and free tacos provided by Taqueria Girasol.
The one-hour event was free to students and faculty with general admission costing $10.
Atta Kid is a Bay Area-based band that attempts to capture the sounds of New Orleans Funk music.
Lead saxophonist Daniel Casares graduated from San Francisco State University in 2007.
Casares, who started playing saxophone when he was 10 years old, recalled his time at SFSU and expressed how he wished events like Jazz & Tacos were around during his time with the music department.
“It just felt like a full circle moment,” Casares said. “The East Bay music, the tower power — that funk thing means a lot to me. To bring it back here, it was just amazing. It was great.”
Aaron Benn, the events and community programs coordinator for the college, was the mastermind behind Wednesday’s event. He explained how there has been a concerted effort to rebuild connections within the College of Liberal and Creative Arts after the pandemic.
“We really wanted to create, bring back that sense of community, activities and things for students to do on campus and we want to do that through music,” Benn said. “We represent the liberal and creative arts, so music, the arts, the humanities. And this is our way of doing that.”
Benn added that the college plans to curate more events in the future to further unite current students, alumni and faculty.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for students to see what they could be doing after they get their degree,” said Sara Witsch, LCA’s special events and projects coordinator. “To be able to directly talk with the artists who have come from our school and now are making a living doing the work I think is a really special part of Jazz & Tacos, specifically. I can’t wait to see us bring in more alumni and hopefully get students directly involved in making music as well through our programs.”
Tobi Mansell, a sophomore exchange student from the United Kingdom and avid jazz listener, expressed how he was blown away by the Atta Kid performance and the atmosphere in the building.
Mansell also mentioned that this was his first time attending the event and looks forward to what’s in store for next semester.
“Everything seemed clean and the vibes were nice,” Mansell said. “I never get anything like this back home, so it’s actually nice to come to an event like this and experience the atmosphere.”
Many characterized the event as an ideal send-off to the Fall 2023 semester. For an hour, students and faculty could escape the mental stress of preparing for finals week.
“It was good to see that people made the effort to come,” said Paul Wilson, department technician for SFSU’s School of Music. “It was nice. Hopefully, next semester we’ll get even more students who show up and maybe it will be so big that it will move to a bigger venue.”
