Afro Yaqui Music Collective at SongSpace at First Unitarian Church

The ASCAP award-winning Afro Yaqui Music Collective is a multilingual jazz band based in Pittsburgh, PA. Since 2016, they have been creating music ranging from soothing, introspective, cello-infused tango; to grooving, hard-hitting, virtuosic jazz-funk. Influenced by front-woman Gizelxanath Rodriguez's experience growing up in two cultures (Mexican and American) and her ancestry as an Indigenous Yaqui woman, Afro Yaqui creates music in which culture and language fuse with catchy melodies and mind-bending harmony to enhance appreciation for diversity in an increasingly multicultural world. Some of their core members include Hugo Cruz (one of Havanas leading drummers and percussionists) Jin Yang (a pipa player who has toured with Yo-Yo Ma and countless others) and Ben Barson