UC Berkeley

At a time of mass migration and growing xenophobia, what can we learn about the reception, incorporation, and alienation of immigrants in American society from listening to the ways they perform jazz, the ‘national music’ of their new host country? Ethnographies of contemporary migrations emphasize the palpable presence of national borders and social boundaries in the everyday life of immigrants. Ethnomusicological literature on migrant and border musics has focused primarily on the role of music in evoking a sense of home and expressing group identity and solidarity in the face of assimilation. In jazz scholarship, the articulation and crossing of genre boundaries has been tied to jazz as a symbol of national cultural identity, both in the U.S and in jazz scenes around the world. While these works cover important aspects of the relationship between nationalism, immigration and music, the role of jazz in facilitating the crossing of national borders and blurring social boundaries between immigrant and native-born musicians in the U.S. has received relatively little attention to date.

This dissertation investigates these interrelated topics by considering the role of immigrant musicians in the New York Jazz scene from the 1910s to the present. It considers the practices that allow musicians to come to New York and sustain themselves as working musicians as they struggle to maintain legal status in the U.S. It examines the ways immigrant musicians express senses of home and national belonging through jazz but also challenge and critique musical and cultural nationalism. It investigates the ways immigrant musicians use jazz improvisation to navigate and cross social boundaries between themselves and native-born musicians, and analyzes musical interactions that defy simple identity and genre categories. Finally, it calls for research on immigrant music that addresses the fractures in and interconnections of national, ethno-racial and genre categories in immigrant musical life in America.

Grounded in three years of ethnographic fieldwork as an Israeli jazz musician in New York City and based on conversations with fellow immigrants from around the world and native-born musicians, audience members, venue owners, and immigration specialists this project analyzes sound recordings, live performances, and archival material to understand the role of jazz music in facilitating interaction among immigrant musicians and across immigrant communities.

Using contemporary theorizations of political borders and social boundaries suggested by Didier Fassin, Etienne Balibar and Sandro Mezzadra in conjunction with Benjamin Brinner’s theory of musical competence, I show that proficiency across several musical genres, particularly jazz and other musical markers of national and ethnic identity are essential to musicians' efforts to maintain legal immigrant status in the U.S. and support themselves and their families as working musicians.

Observing the ways immigrant musicians use jazz to cross national borders, social boundaries and musical genres, as well as to critique received notions of tradition and national identity in music, I call for a move beyond the methodological framing of music as delineating an ethnic community and an uncomplicated symbol of identity. I argue for a conception of immigrant music that considers its role as a tool for interaction across immigrant communities and one that acknowledges the economic, social and political factors involved in maintaining “immigrant musics” as reflections of the home country in ethnic communities within the U.S.