Instrumentalist, Lidia Rodriguez

Lidia Rodriguez

Written by Brandon Roos Photography by Daniel Garcia soundcloud.com/lidiapeacelovesax Instagram lidiapeacelovesax

On a musical mission to lead with kindness, instrumentalist and educator Lidia Rodriguez is sharing a message of open collaboration and self-love through the pillars of peace, love, and sax. As a freelance music teacher and multi-instrumentalist, Lidia Rodriguez’s daily routine never looks the same. But wherever her work takes her, from one day to the next, it’s likely in the service of music. “That’s why I have so many jobs—because I like to have a different day every day. To do the same thing every day was literally my nightmare,” she explains. She got her start in music education with San Jose Jazz’s Progressions program. More recently, she took a job with Music for Minors, which offered her the chance to teach music to kids in Spanish. Her instrumental versatility (she plays various saxophones, as well as flute and clarinet) has kept her busy on the bandstand as well. She’s a member of 7th Street Big Band, a local group comprised of young musicians looking to bring a fresh spin to the aged big band jazz format. She’s signed on with modern R&B outfit the PAC. She’s contributed parts to various singer-songwriters and beat makers. You may even see her roaming the concourse at a Golden State Warriors game, performing with the Bay Blue Notes. That insatiable appetite for playing music stretches back to her teenage days at Franklin High School, when she participated in as many bands as was humanly possible. “I was in drum line. I was in marching band. I was in jazz band, concert band—anything I could get my hands on. I TA’d for the guitar class just because I wanted to do more music,” she recalls. She was also in pep band. All those commitments kept her quite busy and largely away from negative influences in her native Stockton. But she admits

“I love being able to sound big while not being a big person. I don’t feel small at all. I don’t notice that until someone says it. I feel just as powerful as my saxophone.”

-Lidia Rodriguez

that earning saxophone section leader as a sophomore was the first time she noticed she might have been taking music more seriously than her classmates. After three years at San Joaquin Delta Community College, she made the big move to study at San Jose State.

Just as she hoped, she found herself dropped in the middle of a brand-new music community. It was just a bigger change than she was expecting. Compared to the diversity she grew up with in Stockton, she was now the only Latina in her program. Second, choosing to pursue classical studies on baritone saxophone was a bit irregular. She got push back from teachers who tried to get her to switch to the more conventional alto sax and heard whispers from fellow students wondering why she couldn’t do things the normal way. But she was relentless, eventually proving her ability on the baritone and continuing studies on her instrument of choice.

Baritone sax isn’t likely the first (or second or even third) version of the instrument you envision when you imagine one. Yet that’s where Rodriguez feels most capable to express herself musically.

“I love being able to sound big while not being a big person,” she says of the instrument’s appeal. “I don’t feel small at all. I don’t notice that until someone says it. I feel just as powerful as my saxophone.”

While it started as a simple ask out of the blue, Rodriguez’s work with locally based songwriter and producer Mild Monk has spurred an ongoing collaboration between the two. It’s simply how things have blossomed since their first work together on his song “Stay a While.”

“I feel peaceful after I play with him. I really feel like we just meditated when we have rehearsal,” she says of their partnership.

Her work with producer Rythmatical happened a bit closer to home—literally. He’s actually Rodriguez’s landlord, and a track that formed out of a casual jam session has since gained decent traction on SoundCloud. It’s not hard to see why. Listening to “Mudville Sun,” their latest, Rodriguez’s combined lines on sax and flute add a calm, casual dialogue atop the beat’s airy keys and sputtering drums. Her work on Marinero’s “Through the Fog” is similarly relaxing, her laid-back playing never rushing the easy bossa nova rhythm.

Genre doesn’t matter much to her. What’s most important is the spirit of the music and the connection present in collaboration. It’s an insight she gained from inspirations like saxophonist Kamasi Washington and producer Pharrell Williams.

“They talk about using music for change in a really big way,” she notes. “I really look up to musicians like that, who don’t just play to show their ego.”

From struggles to prove herself on her instrument of choice to hearing advice from family about music being a risky option, she’s battled back consistently, proving to others the validity of her voice.

“You shouldn’t have to hide your extra-specialness,” she notes with pride as she talks about her students remembering her as the Latina with big hair and tattoos. “I think music helps me do that. I teach music, and obviously that’s the main point, but a bigger point for me is to teach being who you are and doing what you want, despite what people want you to do with your life. Because it’s not their life; it’s really yours.” C