UC Berkeley

This dissertation engages the concept of transnationalism, a process usually defined by

the permanent migration of people across the borders of nation-states, to highlight the

complexities of the sound of Caribbean jazz in Trinidad and Tobago. This musical practice

draws on an array of sounds that are distinctly local, yet certainly influenced by knowledge of

and connections to the world at large. The sounds of Jamaica (reggae), Brazil (bossa nova), the

United States (R&B, funk, disco) and India (sitar) amongst others can be heard and felt in the

music. While the genre of jazz has largely been understood in reference to its origins in the

United States, its dissemination across the world has become the focus of recent scholarly work.

Jazz arrived in Trinidad and Tobago as early as the 1930s through film scores and radio

broadcasts. However, the jazz emerging from Trinidad and Tobago today is quite distinct,

sonically, from jazz in the United States.

Critically, in this dissertation, I ask in what ways might the study of sound help to reconceptualize

the process of transnationalism. By studying how sound is conceptualized, created,

and disseminated, I examine issues of race, class, gender, labor, and the inequalities of power

that are integral to understanding the concept of transnationalism in the Caribbean context.

Drawing on archival work, I situate jazz within the context of Trinbagonian (Trinidadian and

Tobagonian) history to show how the music first circulated. I engage the concept of sound

beyond musical details to focus on processes of listening, observing, musical analysis and lived

experience to demonstrate how issues of race, class, and power are at the core of how musicians

negotiate the creation of their distinctive sounds. Through a collection of interviews, live

performances and interactions with musicians, I situate biographically the experiences of seven

Trinbagonian jazz musicians to show how their quests to learn and perform Caribbean jazz

reflect larger transnational processes. Approaching Caribbean jazz as a sonic record for mapping

transnational circulation illustrates how musicians in the global south collaborate and exchange

influence outside of dominant frameworks that center the United States and Europe.