Alex Rodriguez

I'm a writer, educator, and trombonist working at the confluences of music, spirituality, and social transformation. I teach courses in Afro-diasporic music with a focus on jazz experimentalism and global scale. I hold a PhD in Ethnomusicology at UCLA, where my research focused on jazz clubs and the communities that sustain them in Los Angeles, California; Santiago, Chile; and Novosibirsk, Siberia. My writing has been published in the academic journals Jazz Perspectives and Jazz and Culture, as well as magazines and newspapers such as The Newark Star-Ledger, NPR Music, and DownBeat. Keeping up as a trombonist has always been an important part of this work, which has also brought wonderful opportunities to perform throughout the Americas since my first gigs in Chile and Bolivia with Los Andes Big Band in 2005.

More recently, I've also trained in Deep Listening through the Center for Deep Listening and in consent-based governance through Sociocracy for All, where I serve in the Cooperatives Circle. Over the past five years, my work has focused on building purpose-driven organizations in the solidarity economy and engaged Buddhist movements, including ten (The Emergence Network), Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Catalyst Cooperative Healing, and Mirlo. This year, I'm returning to academia as a Visiting Lecturer in Music at Wellesley College and working on my debut album, Somewhere Else!!!!

To learn more about my work, or to subscribe to my artist newsletter, please visit alexwrodriguez.com