Vincent Kelley

Kelley_Vincent_Profile

Fifth Year Graduate Student in Music Studies: Ethnomusicology

Vincent Kelley is a Ph.D. Candidate in Ethnomusicology working on the relationship between jazz and India in the late twentieth century. His dissertation project, “Music in Transition: Jazz and India in the Long 1980s,” synthesizes political economy, cultural critique, and formal analysis to theorize global music history during this period. Vincent’s field and archival research was supported by a Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship.

Vincent has performed on drum set and tabla in jazz, Hindustani, and popular music settings in the United States and India. He also has a strong interest in Hindi, Urdu, and Persian language and literature and has received American Institute of Indian Studies and Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowships for Urdu and Persian language study.

Education
  • M.Mus. (Musicology and Ethnomusicology), King’s College London
  • B.A. (Religious Studies), Grinnell College
Research Interests
  • South Asian music
  • Jazz and Afro-American music
  • Improvisation
  • Classicization
  • Global music history
  • Music and religion
  • Political economy of music
  • History of ethnomusicology
Selected Publications

“Toward a Dialectical Understanding of North Indian Drumming Traditions: Musical Labor, Dance, and the Folk/Classical Distinction in Banaras.” Asian Music, Volume 55, Number 2, Summer/Fall 2024, pp. 40-74