An Evening of Latin Music

On Friday January the 29th, I realized that I needed to go to a concert that afternoon. The concert was sponsored by the faculty of the UT at Dallas. When I entered the conference center, I was not sure what to expect. I didn't even know what kind of music they were going to play.

As I entered the room, I was handed a pamphlet that stated that we would be listening to Latin music for the night. Since it said Latin music, I assumed that it meant that I would be listening to some upbeat salsa and tango music which I had grown up with. However, I was in for a pleasant surprise. The music that the faculty played was nothing like the Latin music that I had ever heard before that night. The violinist was amazing. He totally killed the performance. My ears and eyes were totally glued on him for most of the time. he managed to captivate me even when the piano was suppose to be the main focus in the piece.

The audience was thoroughly immersed in the performance for the whole night. Piece after piece they only appeared to added-on to an amazing night of music. By the end of the night many people felt compelled to donate some money towards the UT Dallas scholarship for art students after seeing that the students were in the capable hands of excellent musician and artists.

Cue the Music

In high school, my parents decided to move to Garland/ Richardson. When came up to Berkner High School, I didn't know anybody. I had always wanted to learn how to play pool but I never had a chance. I thought that it would be so awesome if I could play pool well like in those old movies with the hustlers and pros. At Berkner, I met a few people that knew how to play pool and they were even willing to teach me how to play for free, mostly.

We went to different pool halls in the area. Some had better tables then others. This also applied to the hourly rate that they charged. The cleanliness was also a varying a factor in the pool halls. Even the music that they played varied form place to place. The music was always a mood setter for the night and it gave us an indication for how the night would unfold.

Due to the many cultures in the area, each pool hall offered a wide variety of musical choices depeneding on the area in which it was located. For instance, near H-Mart in Carrollton, you are predominately going to hear a lot of k-pop and korean songs as opposed to a bar in Addison where you would hear a lot of country music. The music in the Dallas area pool halls are very diverse and remember the pool halls based on the music that they played. The music at each pool hall told a unique story about the people that go there.

Rap and Hip Hop

When I was a kid, I grew up in a predominately Black neighborhood. As a result, I listened to a lot of rap and hip hop. At first, I didn't like it at all. To me, it was just really loud noise. I couldn't understand what they were saying at all. However, as time grew, I started actually listening to the music.

Even then, I still did not like it. All I heard them singing about was killing, money, and sex. It all seemed so stupid to me. I did not like that at all. Later on, I discovered that there was more to it then just that.

One day my friend showed me a video clip of a rapper and my view changed. I actually listened to the lyrics. Some of them are actually meaningful. I found that I could relate to some stuff that they were saying. I understood what they were saying because I had to grow up in that situation. Some of it was very inspirational. Everytime before a tennis match, track meet, or a basketball game I would listen to some music to get me hyped up for the game. Listening to rap and hip hop, really made an impact on my life.