WASHINGTON — He could have joined his father's Mariachi band, Mexican musicians commonly seen in restaurants dressed in silver-studded Western outfits with wide-brimmed sombreros. But Marine Corps Sgt. Christian Arellano, who plays guitar and percussion, grew up to play a very different tune — jazz.

Although the Los Angeles native grew up in a family of Mexican folk musicians, he said he discovered early in life that his musical tastes were different.

As the leader of the Marine Corps Twentynine Palms Jazz Combo, Arellano cooks up a vibe that is far removed from his family upbringing. The group's musical style includes rhythm and blues, funk, fusion, and Arellano's personal favorite, contemporary jazz.

The ensemble comprises four of about 38 musicians stationed at the Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, Calif., who make up a variety of performance bands that play throughout the region at military ceremonies and events.

Arellano, 24, said being around his father and uncles all the time he was exposed to Mariachi music at an early age. He often joined in their performances, but he didn't take much to the family brand of music, he said. Still, he added, it was his father who steered him to play.

"My dad gave me a few lessons on how to play the guitar (and) the violin, so I was fiddling around with them, but I didn't really care too much," he said. "Then when I was about 12, I really started getting into music, and that was when I picked up the drums first and then a year later the guitar."

Arellano was first introduced to jazz music in high school where he would often sit in on guitar or drums with the school's jazz band.

But it was after graduation — a time when he was working part-time jobs at fast food restaurants and trying to find places where he could play music gigs on his own — that he became inspired even further with jazz music.

"I really wanted to learn jazz music more, so I figured the best way to learn it was to just go and listen to it," he said. "So I started reading, trying to find out who the best jazz guitar players were."

After reading about the musical exploits of guitarist Pat Metheny, who is at the top of his "best jazz guitarists" list, Arellano said he became immersed in jazz, which often is referred to as America's classical music. He's also fond of jazz guitar legend Jaco Pastorius, who has often recorded with Metheny, he said.

Metheny is considered by many as one of the most original guitarists of the 1980's. Music critics describe his brand of music as a mixture of folk and jazz. Arellano, who said he has followed Metheny's career ever since he was in high school, has collected all of the musician's albums.

"There are so many guitar players out nowadays, and there are so few of them that have a such a distinguishable and unique sound to them, that you can just automatically say off the bat, "That's Pat Metheny," Arellano explained. "The way he thinks is so unique, it's so personal."

Arellano said he was impressed that Metheny, as a teenager, taught at Boston's famed Berklee College of Music, a school whose alumni include producer-arranger Quincy Jones, singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge, guitarist Kevin Eubanks and saxophonist-composer Branford Marsalis.

"Just the fact that at 19 and teaching at Berklee, I thought that was amazing," Arellano said. "He was so young and had already accomplished so much."

After three years of going nowhere in his own music career, Arellano said he talked to a Marine Corps recruiter, asking him, "Now what can you offer me?" The reply instead was, "What can you offer us?"

Arellano said he then set up an audition with his local recruiter, and after 20 minutes of playing was told he was "good to go." He was then sent off to school in Norfolk, Va., for advanced music training.

Arellano, now a three-year veteran, said being a musician in the Marine Corps has become a dream career, and he is quick to say he is a "Marines first and musician second."

He said he loves having the opportunity to play jazz music and to motivate and inspire troops. And the fact he gets paid a full-time salary a great circumstance for a musician — doesn't hurt either, he said.

Sergeant Christian Arellano — Group Leader
Electric Guitar

Corporal John Russ — Acoustic and Electric Bass

Sergeant Brad Rehrig — Drums and Percussion

Corporal Keith Cavey — Keyboards and Synthesizers