Country of residence

United States

Brief introduction

Ph.D. Student / Teaching Assistant, New York University

Education

MA, Ethnomusicology, New York University, 2012

Academic profile

I am particularly interested in representations of Romani identities through musical performance, and in particular, through jazz manouche.  Jazz manouche, also known in English as “Gypsy jazz,” refers to a subgenre of jazz whose origins lie in the swing-era music of Romani guitarist Django Reinhardt.  From an ethnomusicological perspective, I research how jazz manouche has come to be symbolic of, simultaneously, Manouche/Romani identity and French patrimony.  The performance of jazz manouche in France, I argue, constitutes a space for fostering relationships among individuals of diverse Romani and non-Romani backgrounds, for differentiating among Romani collectivities, and for developing new narratives of Romani identities and histories.  Moreover, my research suggests that jazz manouche, as a powerful expressive modality, affords its practitioners opportunities to create and/or subvert conceptions of pan-Romani consciousness, and to thereby develop more nuanced, empowering public representations of Romani cultures.  I am also interested in the transmission of musical skills, processes of improvisation, and discourse about music.  Prior to entering the field of ethnomusicology, I studied the anthropology of food, and wrote a thesis about cultural politics in the Slow Food movement.

Publications

• “His soul was wandering and holy: Employing and contesting religious terminology in Django fandom" (article to appear in Popular Music and Society)

Keywords

Romani music, jazz manouche, identity politics, improvisation, ethnomusicology

Contact

sbl326@nyu.edu browse members list