UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title "Sound Come-Unity": Post-9/11 Brown and the Politics of Intercultural Improvisation Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1pb3108j Author Panikker, Dhirendra Mikhail Publication Date 2019 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE “Sound Come-Unity”: Post-9/11 Brown and the Politics of Intercultural Improvisation A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Music by Dhirendra Mikhail Panikker September 2019 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Deborah Wong, Chairperson Dr. Robin D.G. Kelley Dr. René T.A. Lysloff Dr. Liz Przybylski Copyright by Dhirendra Mikhail Panikker 2019 The Dissertation of Dhirendra Mikhail Panikker is approved: Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside Acknowledgments Writing can feel like a solitary pursuit. It is a form of intellectual labor that demands individual willpower and sheer mental grit. But like improvisation, it is also a fundamentally social act. Writing this dissertation has been a collaborative process emerging through countless interactions across musical, academic, and familial circles. This work exceeds my role as individual author. It is the creative product of many voices. First and foremost, I want to thank my advisor, Professor Deborah Wong. I can’t possibly express how much she has done for me. Deborah has helped deepen my critical and ethnographic chops through thoughtful guidance and collaborative study. She models the kind of engaged and political work we all should be doing as scholars. But it all of the unseen moments of selfless labor that defines her commitment as a mentor: countless letters of recommendations, conference paper coachings, last minute grant reminders. Deborah’s voice can be found across every page. I am indebted to the musicians without whom my dissertation would not be possible. Priya Gopal, Vijay Iyer, Amir ElSaffar, and Hafez Modirzadeh gave so much of their time and energy to this project. They invited me into their musical and personal worlds. Their encouragement, patience, and support throughout the research and writing process was invaluable. I don’t consider them “subjects” or interlocuters, but friends, colleagues, and fellow artists on similar creative and scholarly paths. Countless other musicians deserve my heartfelt recognition: Rajna Swaminathan, Zafer Tawil, George Ziadeh, Nasheet Waits, Francis Wong, John-Carlos Perea, Ole Mathisen, Jon Jang, Aakash Mittal, Faraz Minooei, Sirvan Manhoobi, Royal Hartigan, Masaru Koga, Wadada iv Leo Smith, Nitin Mitta, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Rez Abassi, Anjna Swaminathan, Meera Dugal, Arun Ramamurthy, Dillon Vado, Seth Rosner, Yulun Wang, and Kate Dumbleton. I couldn’t have asked for a better committee. Liz Przybylski was an important ally during my time at UCR. I am grateful for her critical feedback and listening ear, and all the dissertation “check-ups” that helped me stay focused throughout the writing process. René Lysloff’s classes were some of the most memorable. His inquisitive mind and carefree spirit helped balance the seriousness and fun of it all. Robin D.G. Kelley is such a powerful voice in the history of black music and politics. His presence on my committee is truly humbling. I am thankful for our many meetings together. During one writing slump, I met with Robin to discuss my chapter on trumpeter Amir ElSaffar. “You’re working too hard,” he told me, suggesting that I shift my analysis to war-torn Iraq rather than the Afro Arab pre-histories he’s written so eloquently about. His advice shifted the trajectory of the chapter and thrust of my entire dissertation. I am grateful for the many friends and colleagues who provided insightful feedback or simply moral support during the natural ups and downs of writing: Lindsay Rapport, Alex Rodriguez, Soham Patel, Arathi Govind, Chinmayi Sirsi, Daniel Castro Pantoja, Kristen Hayashi, Alex Blue V, Jacob Wendt, Josh Brown, Neal Matherne, Mark Inchoco, Elizabeth Stela, and Andrea Decker. A special thanks to Max Williams for his critical feedback on chapter two and Kevin Sliwoski for reading countless chapter drafts and cover letters. Our frequent conversations during the home stretch kept me afloat and v inspired. Finally, I am grateful for Kristine Adamian, who helped keep all those cognitive distortions at bay. I am thankful for having a supportive academic community. The UC Riverside music department has been my home away from home for the last five years. Several faculty members have been important to my development as a scholar: Jonathan Ritter, Leonora Saavedra, Rogerio Budasz, Walter Clark, and Susan Ossman. I am especially indebted to Hillary Jenks, who helped hone countless grant applications and chapter drafts. My dissertation is in many ways a product of her critical eyes and ears. I am also fortunate to have had many outside mentors willing to read my work, provide insightful feedback, or encouragement throughout the research process: Michael Dessen, Michael Heller, Tamara Roberts, Elliott Powell, Niko Higgins, George Lipsitz. Special thanks to Edward Piñuelas who helped develop my theory of brownvoice in chapter three. My dissertation would not be possible without the support of several institutions. The Center for Ideas and Society funded a significant portion of my fieldwork through the Humanities Graduate Student Research Grant. I am also honored to have received a generous Dissertation Year Program award in fall 2018. Non-academic funding sustained the majority of this project. I am especially thankful for several fellowships through the Gluck Fellows Program for the Arts. These opportunities allowed me to share my research on jazz and world music to underrepresented kids from local schools across Riverside County. Finally, I want to thank the UCR music department for providing four solid years of work as a graduate TA. Juggling teaching and writing was challenging, but I am grateful to have had the chance to work with almost one thousand students from vi across our diverse campus. I want to believe that our brief conversations about music and culture made some impact on how we all listen critically in the world. Lastly, and most importantly, I am blessed with the support and love of family. It’s been a tough road for me and by extension, the people closest to me. But they were always there with gentle support and sometimes a little tough love during the stresses of graduate life. Special thanks to Debby, Tomás, and Monica for opening up their homes to me during fieldwork. Thank you to my partner and best friend, Danielle. You always believed in me, even during those moments when I lost hope. Ti amo per sempre. Finally, I am so grateful to my parents for supporting my musical and academic paths from the very start. My dad has shaped this project in more ways that he might know. Our long conversations on music and metaphysics always kept me on my toes. Your brilliant mind and poetic heart breathe through every word. I love you all. vii Dedication For my grandmother, Sarojini Panikker (1919-2018) viii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION “Sound Come-Unity”: Post-9/11 Brown and the Politics of Intercultural Improvisation by Dhirendra Mikhail Panikker Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in Music University of California, Riverside, September 2019 Professor Deborah Wong, Chairperson In the aftermath of 9/11, South Asian Americans and Middle Eastern Americans experienced heightened racial violence and discrimination that subsumed their differences in the monolithic image of the Brown Other. In response, many have forged new alliances based in a shared marginalization as people of color. Recent scholarship in ethnic studies highlights the racial and class tensions surrounding interminority coalition building, particularly in relation to blackness (Kun and Pulido 2013; N. T. Sharma 2010). Music also functions as a site for the construction of community across difference. Scholars of critical studies in improvisation (CSI) highlight the role that real-time performance plays in generating meaningful encounters across divergent social identities and histories (Fischlin, Heble, and Lipsitz 2013; Stanyek 2004). Little research, however, explores the work of non-black, US-based improvisers of color. I fill in this critical gap through an examination of intercultural improvisation in the post-9/11 era. Across a multi-sited research network from New York to Chicago, Los ix Angeles, and San Francisco, I explore the impact of post-9/11 racial and gender politics on the performance, reception, and representation of South Asian American and Middle Eastern American jazz improvisers. I examine the lives of four interrelated musicians in the jazz and creative music scene: Vijay Iyer, Priya Gopal, Amir ElSaffar, and Hafez Modirzadeh. I position their work in broader collaborative contexts and in relation to discourses on race, interculturalism, and improvisation. I employ dialogic (Feld 2012) and autoethnographic (Anderson 2006; Reed-Danahay 1997) methodologies in order to situate my own identity as a South Asian American artist-scholar within these musical communities. I ask these questions: How do race and gender influence the way Brown artists are seen and heard? What are the tensions surrounding interminority encounters with blackness? How does improvisation offer a creative medium to articulate these marked