Gabriel Solis
Associate Professor, Musicology and African American Studies
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
1114 W. Nevada St, MC-056
Urbana, Ill. 61801
(217) 244-2679
gpsolis@illinois.edu
Education
Washington University in St. Louis. Ph. D. in Ethnomusicology and Historical Musicology,
May 2001.
Dissertation: “Monk‟s Music and the Making of a Legacy.”
Advisor: Ingrid Monson
Committee: Robert Snarrenberg (Music), Dolores Pesce (Music), Hugh MacDonald
(Music), Gerald Early (English and African American Studies), Richard Fox
(Anthropology)
University of Wisconsin, Madison. B. A. in Music, emphasis in Musicology, magna cum laude,
May 1993.
Advisor: Jeanne Swack
Teaching
Associate Professor of Music, African American Studies, and Anthropology, University of Illinois,
Urbana-Champaign, Fall 2002-current.
Courses Taught in jazz history, pop music studies and ethnomusicology, including:
Introduction to Music in World Cultures
Freshman Honors Seminar: „Music, Race and the Recording Industry 1900-
1945
Jazz in American Culture
African American Music
Blues
Music and Media: Sound and Video Recording in the 20th Century
Australian Indigenous Music
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Rock Studies
Jazz and the World
Transcription for Ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology Proseminar: Foundations and Methods
History, Memory and Music
Social Theory in Ethnomusicology
Jazz Oral History
Lecturer, University of Pennsylvania Department of Music, Fall 2000-Spring 2002.
Courses Taught in jazz history and world music.
Graduate Teaching Assistant, Washington University Department of Music, 1996-2000.
Courses Taught in music theory
Assisted with courses in popular music, western classical music history, and music
theory
Residencies
Scholar in Residence, University of Goroka, Eastern Highlands Province, Papua New
Guinea, May-June 2010
Workshops taught, including:
Local music in school music programs
Ethnomusicological field recording and oral history
Developing hybrid forms of local music for university heritage music
ensemble
Publications
Books:
Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall. Solicited for series Studies in Recorded
Jazz. Series Editor Jeremy Barham. New York: Oxford University Press, forthcoming
An analytical study of the Monk/Coltrane live album recorded in 1958 and released
in 2005. This book includes extensive close readings of the pieces on the
performance, along with a discussion of the recording‟s two contexts: jazz concert
life in the 1950s and the media landscape of jazz in the 2000s.
What is He Building in There?: Tom Waits and Rock at the End of the “American Century.” Berkeley,
Calif: University of California Press, forthcoming.
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A study of rock musician Tom Waits with a focus on race, gender, and the cultural
politics of Americana in the last quarter of the 20th century.
Musical Improvisation: Art, Society, Education, ed. with Bruno Nettl. Urbana, Ill.: University of
Illinois Press, 2009.
Monk’s Music: Thelonious Monk and Jazz History in the Making. Berkeley, Cal.: University of
California Press, 2007
Articles:
“Ellington in the Age of the LP,” commissioned article for New Perspectives on Duke Ellington,
ed. John Howland. New York: Oxford University Press, forthcoming.
“‟I Did It My Way‟: Rock and the Logic of Covers.” Popular Music and Society 33/3 (July
2010): 297-318.
“Genius, Improvisation and the Narratives of Jazz History” in Musical Improvisation: Art,
Society, Education, ed. Gabriel Solis and Bruno Nettl. University of Illinois Press, 2009.
“‟Workin‟ Hard, Hardly Workin‟/Hey Man, You Know Me‟: Tom Waits and the Theatrics
of Masculinity,” The Journal of Popular Music Studies, 19/1 (April 2007): 26-58.
“Jazz Historiography and the Sixties Avant Garde: A Review Essay,” commissioned by the
Royal Musical Association Journal, 131/2 (2006): 331-349.
“‟A Unique Chunk of Jazz Reality‟: Authorship, Musical Work Concepts, and Thelonious
Monk‟s Live Recordings from the Five Spot, 1958.” Ethnomusicology 48/3 (Fall 2004).
Reprinted by editor‟s request in Beyond Resource Management: Humanizing Approaches to Music and
Copyright, ed. Anthony McCann, Wesleyan University Press: Forthcoming, 2007.
“Hearing Monk: History, Memory, and the Making of a „Jazz Giant‟.” The Musical Quarterly
86/1 (Spring 2002).
Reviews:
Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop, by Guthrie Ramsey, Jr., in American Music. In
press.
Freedom Is, Freedom Ain’t: Jazz and the Making of the Sixties, by Scott Saul, in Belles Lettres.
Forthcoming.
Representing African Music, by Kofi Agawu, in Notes 61/1 (Sept. 2004).
So What: The Life of Miles Davis, by John Szwed, in Belles Lettres, 3/2 (March/April 2003): 14-
15.
Jazz Cultures, by David Ake, in Ethnomusicology, 47/3 (Fall 2003): 392-4.
Encyclopedia Entries:
“Ingrid Monson,” “Thelonious Monk,” “Tom Waits,” and “Hall and Oates” in Grove
Dictionary of American Music, forthcoming.
“Thelonious Sphere Monk.” In African American National Biography. New York: Oxford
University Press, forthcoming.
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Work in Progress:
Dreaming in Public: Aboriginal Traditional Music and Dance and Cosmopolitanism in Contemporary
Australia
The Roda is the World, The World is a Roda: Capoeira Today, in Brazil and Abroad, collection co-
edited with Luciano Tosta
Invited Presentations
“Moving Beyond Preservation: Traditional Music, Arts Institutions and Modernity in
Contemporary Papua New Guinea,” presented to the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive
Theory, University of Illinois, Nov. 29, 2010
“‟Don‟t Put That Thing on Me‟: The Myth of the Bluesman Reconsidered,” presented at
The Ohio State University, Oct. 4, 2010
“Beyond Preservation: Traditional Music and Technology in Cross-Cultural Perspective,”
presented at the University of Goroka, Eastern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea,
June 2, 2010
“Heartland Jazz Worlds: An Oral History Project for Jazz In Midwestern Cities,” presented
to Historymakers program, Chicago, Ill., June 30, 2008
“Aboriginal Music and Dance Performance at Three Festivals: Thoughts on the
Performance of Indigeneity in Contemporary Australia.” Invited presentation for the
“EthNoise” workshop, University of Chicago, April 24, 2008
“Ousider Status and Applied Ethnomusicology in Contemporary Australia.” Invited
presentation for the music colloquium series, St. Mary‟s College, South Bend, Indiana.
March 31, 2008.
“Ethnomusicology and Sound Recordings.” Invited presentation for the ethnomusicology
colloquium series, Duke University. February 22, 2008.
“Jazz, Race, and Masculinity In the 1960s,” Summer Institute for Teaching Jazz as American
Culture, sponsored by Washington University Center for the Humanities, July 27, 2005.
“Conversing with Monk: Jazz Musicians‟ Negotiations of Authorial Voice in the
Performance of Thelonious Monk‟s Music.” University of Pennsylvania Department of
Music colloquium, invited presentation, October 24, 2000.
Academic Conference Papers
“From the Soil of the Mississippi Delta?: Early Blues and the Bluesman Reconsidered.”
Presented at the National Meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology, November 11-14,
2010.
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“Compositions, Copyright Law, and Creative Commons: Between Creativity and Economic
Benefits of Music.” Presented at the national meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology,
October 25-28, 2008.
“Teaching Beyond the Canon: Critical Jazz Historiography and American Jazz Education.”
Invited presentation for the Canons in Musical Scholarship and Performance conference,
sponsored by the University of Illinois School of Music and Center for World Music,
Urbana, Illinois, April 18-20, 2008.
“Bluesology: Gil Scott-Heron and the Semiotics of the Voice.” Presented at the national
meeting of the American Musicological Society, November 1-4, 2007.
“Our Law: Aboriginal Knowledge, Technology, and the Problem of the „Traditional‟ in
Contemporary Australia.” Presented for the Madden Lecture Series, UIUC college of
Liberal Arts and Sciences and Fine and Applied Arts, October 10, 2007.
“Dreaming in Public: Music, Dance, and the Representation of Aboriginal Culture in
Contemporary Australia.” Presented at the national meeting of the Society for
Ethnomusicology, November 16-19, 2006.
“‟Workin‟ Hard, Hardly Workin‟/Hey Man, You know Me‟: Tom Waits, Sound, and the
Theatrics of Masculinity.” Presented at the EMP conference April 15-18, 2005, the national
conference of the Society For Ethnomusicology, November 16-20, 2005, and the national
conference of the Society for American Music, March 15-19, 2006.
“Brazil, Africa, and African America: the Transnational Meaning of Capoeira.” Presented at
Circuits of Style: Africa in the Americas, Urbana, Illinois, April 17, 2004.
“Genius and the Narratives of Jazz Historiography.” Presented at New Directions in the
Study of Improvisation, Urbana, Illinois, April 2, 2004.
“Playing with the Past: Thelonious Monk and the Contemporary Jazz Scene.” Presented at
the national meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology, Miami, Florida, October 3, 2003
and at the Symposium of the International Musicological Society, Melbourne, Australia July
12, 2004.
“Sidney Bechet, Jazz, and the Historiography of Race.” Presented at the Midwest regional
meeting of the American Musicological Society, St. Louis, Missouri, March 23, 2003.
“Historical Treasures and Testaments Betrayed: The Publication of Thelonious Monk‟s Live
Recordings at the Five Spot, 1958.” Presented at the national meeting of the American
Musicological Society, Columbus, Ohio, October 31, 2002.
“Historical Treasures and Testaments Betrayed: The Publication of Thelonious Monk‟s Live
Recordings at the Five Spot, 1958.” University of Illinois African American Studies and
Research Program brown bag colloquium series, invited presentation, October 11, 2002.
“Local Authenticities, Global Imagination: Rueda de Sol and Capoeira in St. Louis.”
Presented at the national meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology, Bloomington, Ind.,
October 22, 1998.
“Thelonious Monk‟s Album Covers: The Making of a Mythic Image.” Presented at the
Midwest regional chapter meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology, Macomb, Ill., April 4,
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1997.
Field Work
Research conducted in Eastern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea, Summer 2010.
Research conducted in Cape York Northern Peninsular Area, Summer 2006.
Research conducted with NAISDA Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Dance College,
Sydney, Australia, and with the Cape York Language Group, Injinoo, Australia, June-
November, 2005.
Research conducted with capoeiristas in Philadelphia, Penna., December 2001-July 2002.
Research conducted with jazz musicians in St. Louis, Mo. And New York, N. Y., December
1998-October 1999.
Research conducted with capoeiristas in St. Louis, Mo., January-August 1998.
Oral History Project
“Heartland Jazz Worlds,” an oral history project for jazz in Chicago, St. Louis, and
Indianapolis. 2008-ongoing.
Grants and Awards
Scholarship:
Creative Research Award ($6,000), to support “Heartland Jazz Worlds,” from the University
of Illinois College of Fine and Applied Arts, 2009
Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities Fellowship, to support What is He Building in
There?: Tom Waits and Rock at the End of the American Century, academic year 2008-09.
Sabbatical, to support What is He Building in There?: Tom Waits and Rock at the End of the Century
Fall 2008.
Madden Fellowship ($15,000) to support Dreaming in Public, from the Madden Initiative in
Technology, Arts, and Culture, 2006-07.
Arnold O. Beckman Distinguished Research award and $25,000 grant to support Dreaming in
Public, from the University of Illinois Research Board, 2005.
Richard C. Hunt Postdoctoral grant ($15,000) to support Monk’s Music, from the Wenner-
Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, 2003.
Research grants from the University of Illinois Research Board, various projects, 2002-03,
2007, 2008-09.
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Dissertation Fellowship, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Washington University,
academic year 2000-01.
Dean‟s Scholarship for Summer Research, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences,
Washington University, 2000.
Nussbaum Fellowship for dissertation research, 1999.
Dean‟s Scholarship for Summer Research, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences,
Washington University, 1999.
Teaching:
University of Illinois, College of Fine and Applied Arts Award for Excellence in Teaching,
2006-07.
Consistent inclusion in University of Illinois “Incomplete List of Teachers Ranked as
Excellent,” a student publication based on evaluation scores, 2003-current
Outreach Presentations
“Jazz Concertos” and “Reflections on Maynard Ferguson,” presented as part of the
University of Illinois Summer Jazz festival, Summer 2008.
“Blues and African American Studies,” presented to the East Asia and Pacific Studies
Freeman Fellows, Fall 2008.
“Music in Memphis,” presented to the East Asia and Pacific Studies Freeman Fellows, Fall
2007.
“Afro-Cuban Music,” a lecture-demonstration with Tiempo Libre, presented to KCPA, Fall
2006
“Aboriginal Culture,” presented to the Illinois Agricultural Leadership Organization, Spring
2006
“Capoeira,” presented to KCPA, Fall 2005
“Music in Chicago,” presented to Marketing course, Fall 2005
“Music and the Black Liberation Movement in the 1960s,” presented to Introduction to
African American Studies course, Spring 2004
“Afro-Brazilian Music,” a lecture demonstration presented to KCPA, Fall 2003
Advising and Graduate Student Committees
Advisees:
Ph.D.:
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Heejin Kim, Ph.D. Ethnomusicology, “Military Bands, Popular Entertainment, and the
Korean War, 1945-1960,” A..B.D.
D.M.A.:
Chris Nolte, D.M.A. Jazz, in course work
Chris Reyman, D.M.A. Jazz, in course work
Trent Jacobs, D.M.A., Bassoon (2010), “Elements of Jazz in Bassoon Solo Repertoire.”
Currently working as a bassoonist in Minneapolis-St. Paul.
Brian Felix, D.M.A., Jazz (2009), “Rock Becomes Jazz: Jazz Interpretations of Popular Music
by Improvising Artists in the 1960s.” Currently Assistant Professor, Jazz Studies, University
of North Carolina-Asheville
Anne Guist, D.M.A. Bassoon (2007), “Contemporary Works for Bassoon and Guitar.”
Currently working as a bassoonist, Brownsville, TX.
Paul Musser, D.M.A. Jazz (2004), “Me, Myself, and Mingus.” Currently Assistant Professor,
music, DePauw College
David Diamond, D.M.A. Jazz (2006), “Expanding the Boundaries: The 1961 Hard Bop
Compositions of Booker Little,” currently performing in the U.S. Army Band
M.A.:
Ben Smith, M.A. Ethnomusicology, in course work
Phil Clark, M.A. Ethnomusicology, in course work
Anne Clark, M.A. Ethnomusicology, in course work
Abby Lyng, M.A. Ethnomusicology, “Brickheadz: B-Boy History and Memory in Chicago”
Anne Kogan, MA Ethnomusicology (2005), “Musical Bodies: Swing Dance and Musicality,”
currently working for folklife center in Washington, D.C., as program coordinator for
folklife festivals.
Undergraduate:
Kendra Salois, B.Mus. Music History, “A Musical and Cultural History of „Black Coffee‟,”
currently working on a Ph.D. in musicology at U.C. Berkeley
Exam and Dissertation Committee Member:
Ph.D.:
Nicholas Gaffney, Ph.D. History, A.B.D.
Ryan Haynes, Ph.D. Ethnomusicology, A.B.D.
Leah Hartman, Ph.D. Ethnomusicology, A.B.D. (Exam 2006)
Sarah Heimbecker, Ph.D. Musicology, A.B.D. (Exam 2006)
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Natasha Kipp, Ph.D. Ethnomusicology, A.B.D (Exam 2005)
Tom Faux, Ph.D. Ethnomusicology, “Franco-American and Quebecois Music,” A.B.D.
(Exam 2004)
Tanya Lee, P.D. Ethnomusicology, “The Old Town School of Folk Music,” A.B.D. (Exam
2004)
Anthony Perman, Ph.D. Ethnomusicology, “Music and Emotion Among Ndau Speakers in
Zimbabwe” (2008), currently Assistant Professor of Music and Africana Studies, Bowdoin
College
Stefan Fiol, Ph.D. Ethnomusicology, “Constructing Regionalism: Discourses of Spirituality
and Cultural Poverty in the Popular Music of Uttarakhand, North India” (2008), currently
Assistant Professor of music, Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester
David McDonald, Ph.D. Ethnomusicology, Music and Politics in Palestine (2006) (exam
2003), currently Assistant Professor of ethnomusicology, Indiana University
Sylvia Bruinders, Ph.D. Ethnomusicology, “Coon Carnival Music in Cape Town,” A.B.D.
(Exam 2003), currently Assistant Professor of music, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Rebecca Bryant, Ph.D. Musicology, “Shaking Big Shoulders: Music and Dance in Chicago
1910-1925” (2003), currently Assistant Dean, Graduate College, University of Illinois
D.M.A.:
Henning Schröder, Saxophone, A.B.D.
Mark O‟Connor, Jazz, A.B.D.
Chris Reyman, Jazz, A.B.D.
Chris Nolte, Jazz, A.B.D.
Brian Felix, Jazz, A.B.D.
Nathan Mandel, D.M.A. Saxophone, A.B.D.
Scotty Stepp, D.M.A. Saxophone, A.B.D.
Toby Curtright, D.M.A. Jazz, “Making the Jazz Bassist,” A.B.D. (Exam 2005), currently
Instructor (Jazz Bass) at Moorhead State University
Kyong Mee Choi, D.M.A. Composition (2005), “Spatial Relationships in Electro-Acoustic
Music And Painting”, currently Assistant Professor of Composition at Roosevelt University
(Chicago)
Vern Sielert, D.M.A. Trumpet (2005), “An Analysis of Selected Compositions by Jazz
Trumpeter Tom Harrell”, currently Assistant Professor of Jazz Studies at the University of
Washington
Darin Kamstra, D.M.A. Percussion (2004), “Notation for Multi-Percussion”, currently
Assistant Professor of Jazz Studies and Percussion, Mesa State College (Colorado)
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William Campbell, D.M.A. Saxophone (2004), (Exam 2003), currently Assistant Professor of
Saxophone, currently Assistant Professor of Saxophone at University of North Carolina—
Charlottesville
Service
International:
Consultant for the Cape York Language Group, 2005-current.
Consultant for the Australian National Recording Project for Indigenous Music, 2005-
current.
National:
Member, Society for Ethnomusicology Council, 2008-10
Book review editor for Jazz Perspectives, 2008-current
Media review editor for Jazz Perspectives, 2006-2008.
Acting Chair, ad hoc committee to create Waterman Prize, Society for Ethnomusicology
Popular Music Section.
Editorial board member for Jazz Perspectives, edited by Lewis Porter and John Howland,
published by Routledge. 2005-Current.
Grants adjudicator for the National Endowment for the Humanities, 2004.
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, selected committees:
University Level
o Faculty Senate, senator, 2009-11 (2-year term)
o Excellence in teaching program, board member, 2009-10
o Illinois Humanities Summit, Panelist. Sponsored by the Illinois Program for
Research in the Humanities, Fall 2009
o Co-Organizer, Sawyer seminar on “The Global Sixties,” funded at $25,000
o Consultant for Joint Area Studies Conference, 2007
College of Fine and Applied Arts:
o Library Committee, School Year 2007-08
School of Music
o Ethnumusicology search committee, Chair, 2009-10
o Fairness in grading committee, Chair, 20009-10
o Awards committee, 2009-10
o Library Committee, School Years 2005-08 (Chair, 2007-08)
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o Hiring Committees, Jazz Piano, Jazz Bass
o Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, 2004-05
o Committee to develop a Jazz program, 2003-05
Musicology Division
o Admissions Committee, Chair, 2009-10
o Admissions Committee, 2004-05
Department of African American Studies
o Faculty affiliate advisory board, 2003-06
Co-organizer of the conference Canons in Musical Scholarship and Performance, April 18-20,
2008.
Co-organizer with Bruno Nettl and William Kinderman of the conference New Directions in
the Study of Improvisation, April 1-4, 2004.
University of Pennsylvania:
Website design and maintenance for world music classes, Fall, 2001. URL:
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/music/music22
Washington University:
Acting Chair, Department of Music Lecture Committee, Spring 1998.
Student Representative, Department of Music Lecture Committee, 1997-98
Graduate Student Liaison to the Department of Music, 1996-97
Student Representative to the Washington University Graduate Council, 1996-97
Affiliations
Society for Ethnomusicology
American Musicological Society
Society for American Music
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