Jairo Moreno's work in music theory addresses the production of knowledge of music and the sonic in modernity from a historic-speculative perspective. He has written a major study of the history of listening in early modern and modern music theory and analysis, Musical Representations, Subjects, and Objects: The Construction of Musical Thought in Zarlino, Descartes, Rameau, and Weber (Indiana University Press, 2004). Syncopated Modernities: Musical Latin Americanisms in the U.S., 1978-2008 (forthcoming, U. of Chicago Press) presents an archival, critical, and ethnographic study of music’s precarious share in political practices during late capitalism, with a focus on the intersections of aurality, the politics of aesthetics, and Latin-American popular music in the U.S during the long 20th century. He is co-editor of the Oxford University Press series Critical Conjunctures in Music and Sound, and co-editor of Econophonia: Music, Value, and Forms of Life (Boundary 2, 2016). Most recently, he is conducting research and fieldwork with the Pankararu community of Brejo dos Padres (Brazil), part of work on aural practices and “empirical metaphysics” among midwives there and in the Colombian Pacific region. Awards include the Society for American Music 2005 Irving Lowens Article Award for Best Article (“Bauzá-Gillespie-Latin Jazz”), ACLS Fellowship (2009-2010), and National Humanities Center Fellowship (2012-2013). A former professional bassist, he appeared in five Grammy Award nominated recordings with the late Latin and Jazz percussionist Ray Barretto (Blue Note, EMI-France, Concord, Fania labels—1989-1997), played in numerous other recordings, and performed chamber music with guitarist David Starobin and the Ciompi String Quartet, among others.
Musical Representations, Subjects, and Objects: the Construction of Musical Thought in Zarlino, Descartes, Rameau, and Weber (Indiana University Press, 2004).
“Imperial Auralities: The U.S. and the Conscription of Listening.” In Audible Empire, eds. Ronald Radano and Tejumola Olaniyan. (Duke University Press, forthcoming 2013).
“Past Identity: Guillermo Klein, Miguel Zenón and the Future Jazz.” In Music and Youth Identifications in Latin America, ed. Pablo Vila (Oxford University Press, forthcoming, 2013).
"La letra errante (à propos de Rubén Blades—o Brecht en el trópico)." In Música y Literatura, ed. Gabriela Tineo (Callejón, Puerto Rico, forthcoming 2013).
“Rancière’s Equal Music,” co-authored with Gavin Steingo. Contemporary Music Review, ed. Martin Scherzinger (forthcoming, 2012)
“On the Ethics of the Unspeakable.” In Speaking of Music, eds. Keith Chapin and Andrew H. Clark, Fordham University Press (in press, 2012).
“Corpus delicti. ‘Pedro Navaja’ como palabra y escucha.”In Relaciones caribeñas. Entrelazamientos de dos siglos. Relations caribeénnes. Enchevêtrements de deux siècles. Frankfurt u.a.: Peter Lang Verlang (2011): 195-212.
“On Diversity,” co-authored with Amy Cimini. GAMUT, 2/1 (2009): 111-196.
“Bauzá–Gillespie–Latin/Jazz: Difference, Modernity, and the Black Caribbean.” The South Atlantic Quarterly 103:1 (2004): 81-99 (ed. Frank Lentricchia). Winner of the Irving Lowens Award for Best Article, Society for American Music (2005). Reprinted in The Afro-Latin@ Reader: History and Culture in the United States, eds. Miriam Jiménez Roman and Juan Flores (Duke University Press, 2010); Spanish trans. as “Bauzá-Gillespie-música latina/Jazz: diferencia, modernidad y el Caribe Negro.” A contratiempo: revista de música en la cultura (16), 2011, trans. Mónica Cuellar Gempeler. At, http://acontratiempo.bibliotecanacional.gov.co/?ediciones/revista-16.html