Collegiate Affiliation

Associate Professor: Creative Studies & Media / Ethnomusicology

Scott Currie earned bachelor’s degrees at Swarthmore College (Physics and Political Science) and the State University of New York College at Old Westbury (African-American Music), master’s degrees at City University of New York (Education) and New York University (Ethnomusicology), and his Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology at New York University. His most recent research projects explore the nexus between rocksteady rhythm-section conception and roots-drumming traditions in Jamaica, and the festivalization of jazz in America and Europe. Other research to date has focused on comparative studies of improvisation in cross-cultural perspective, ethnographic studies of avant-garde jazz practice in New York City and Berlin, and historical/ethnographic studies of Ornette Coleman’s collaborations with the Master Musicians of Jajouka, Morocco. He has received grants from the Imagine Fund, German Marshall Fund, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and New York University, and published articles and reviews in Critical Studies in Improvisation, Jazzforschung, Jazz Research JournalStudies in Symbolic Interaction, Glendora Review, and Ethnomusicology, along with chapters in edited anthologies. Before joining the faculty of the University of Minnesota, he taught jazz history, world music, African-American music, Afro-Caribbean music, and Afropop at the Eastman School of Music, the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), and New York University. In addition, he has served as associate director of the Vision Festival, an independent avant-garde arts festival in New York, and founded the Sound Vision Orchestra. He has performed on saxophones with such artists as Cecil Taylor, Bill Dixon, Alan Silva, Marty Ehrlich, J. D. Parran, Other Dimensions in Music, and the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari.