Jesse Brazil has been traveling from shopping center to shopping center playing his violin for years now. He does it in his spare time when he's not working in the food industry. In the past, his serenades have always been for fun. He says he loves music because it can be played anywhere.
"I go out into the world with the mindset that the world is my stage as a violinist and a musician," Brazil says.
But now, he plays for a different reason. Recently, Brazil was driving in a car he'd bought only months before when a woman cut him off. He hit the median and his car was flipped and totaled. He walked away without a scratch, but also without a car.
Now, he is playing with the hopes of earning some extra cash for a down payment on a new car. In the meantime, he's been using Uber to get around town to play. He says he originally moved to Bakersfield to turn his life around; he'd received multiple tickets and violations living in the Los Angeles area. He plays to help pay those fees off, all while doing what he loves with an instrument he loves.
"This is my fifth or sixth violin and I've searched for the right one for a long time and I feel like this is the one," Brazil says.
