Resounding Afro Asia: Interracial Music and the Politics of Collaboration

249 Pages·2016·16.53 MB·English

by  Tamara Roberts

Resounding Afro Asia
American Musicspheres
Series Editor
Mark Slobin
Fiddler on the Move
Exploring the Klezmer World
Mark Slobin
The Lord’s Song in a Strange Land
Music and Identity in Contemporary Jewish Worship
Jeffrey A. Summit
Lydia Mendoza’s Life in Music
Yolanda Broyles- González
Four Parts, No Waiting
A Social History of American Barbershop Harmony
Gage Averill
Louisiana Hayride
Radio and Roots Music Along the Red River
Tracey E. W. Laird
Balkan Fascination
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Mirjana Laušević
Polkabilly
How the Goose Island Ramblers Redefined American Folk Music
James P. Leary
Cajun Breakdown
The Emergence of an American- Made Music
Ryan André Brasseaux
Claiming Diaspora
Music, Transnationalism, and Cultural Politics in Asian/ Chinese America
Su Zheng
Bright Star of the West
Joe Heaney, Irish Song- Man
Sean Williams and Lillis Ó Laire
Romani Routes
Cultural Politics and Balkan Music in Diaspora
Carol Silverman
Voices from the Canefields
Folksongs from Japanese Immigrant Workers in Hawai’i
Franklin Odo
Greeted With Smiles
Bukharian Jewish Music and Musicians in New York
Evan Rapport
Resounding Afro Asia
Interracial Music and the Politics of Collaboration
Tamara Roberts
RESOUNDING AFRO ASIA
Interracial Music and the Politics of Collaboration
Tamara Roberts
1
1
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You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Roberts, Tamara.
Title: Resounding Afro Asia : interracial music and the politics of
collaboration / Tamara Roberts.
Description: Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, [2016] | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015028851| ISBN 978–0–19–937740–4 (hardcover : alk. paper) |
ISBN 978–0–19–937741–1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Music and race—United States. | Asian
Americans—Music—History and criticism. | African
Americans—Music—History and criticism.
Classification: LCC ML3917.U6 R63 2016 | DDC 780.89/0596095—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015028851
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Webcom, Canada
Publication of this book was supported by the Dragan Plamenac Endowment
of the American Musicological Society, funded in part by the National
Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
For G’mommy
and
Grandpa Bob

Contents
Acknowledgments   ix
Introduction: Echoes of the Future   1
1. This Strange Amalgamation: Afro Asian Roots   26
2. Becoming Afro Asian: Yoko Noge’s Jazz Me Blues
and Japanesque   59
3. Articulating Interracial Space: Funkadesi’s “One Family”   89
4. Sonic Identity Politics: Fred Ho’s Afro Asian Music Ensemble   122
5. Toward an Afro Asian Theory of Critique: The “Addictive” Case   153
Conclusion: Red Baraat and Other Reverberations 174
Notes   183
References   201
Index   219
vii

Acknowledgments
I will begin where most typically end, by thanking my family. My love
and appreciation go out to the entire interrelated web of Roberts,
Doak, Paradiso, and Fields members. You all have taught me firsthand the
ins and outs, highs and lows, wonders and difficulties of building relation-
ships across multiple lines of difference. I am grateful for your unending
support and confidence in my abilities, even when I doubt them myself.
As the newest addition to my family, Melissa Reyes has been the bedrock
of my final years with this project. You have listened as I talked through
my argument again and again (and again), offered invaluable suggestions,
tolerated for way too long the dishes I left piled in the sink and the clothes
I left crumpled on the floor, and continually reminded me that there is life
outside of and beyond this book. I could not have done this without you,
mi amor.
Like many first books, this one began as a dissertation project. I am
indebted to my committee— Inna Naroditskaya, Micaela di Leonardo,
and E. Patrick Johnson—f or their investment in my scholarly training
and continued support in the years since graduation. As my graduate
(life?) advisor, Patrick, you deserve special praise. You have been there
from the very beginning to the very end and I only hope to pay forward to
my own students the time and energy you have expended on me. I would
also like to thank other teachers, mentors, and colleagues (as the years
pass, the roles shift) that supported my work in its formative stages and
more fully realized forms, including Jennifer Brody, Susan Manning,
Sandra Richards, Margaret Thompson Drewal, Paul Edwards, Dwight
Conquergood, Stephen Hill, Ramón Rivera-S ervera, Nitasha Sharma, and
Alexander Weheliye.
Many thanks to my colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley.
The faculty and staff of the Department of Music have provided needed
support as I  developed my work, especially Bonnie Wade, Jocelyne
Guilbault, Benjamin Brinner, and James Davies. Conversations with
ix