SherriLynn Colby-Bottel

Cultural Anthropology

Regional focus: US South

Topical interests: New Orleans, Race and music

It is my aim to bring together my two "lives": that of a musician and that of an anthropologist. As a professional jazz singer I have been performing and studying early jazz for more than two decades. Over the years I have pursued various forms of learning about jazz music and performance. I have a Masters of Art degree in Music Performance and have performed extensively across North America, as well as toured in Europe. Through my travels and time on the road, I have learned a great deal from elder jazz musicians-their music and their histories. My interest in jazz history grew, and I began making trips to New Orleans almost 10 years ago to hear the music and to study the performers, audiences, and promoters who create it

Enter anthropology. As a person who has long had the habit of having too many interests, anthropology seemed a perfect fit. Where else could I find the theoretical and practical tools I needed to bring together my specialized knowledge in jazz with my fledgling "people curiosity"? Thus I came to UVA to pursue my love of New Orleans' music and to explore social and musical relationships among the various music communities broadly encompassed by the term roots-music. These music communities have their own theories of New Orleans music as a living expression of the city's particular history. My doctoral research begins with the ways in which communities that perform and support traditional New Orleanian musics pass on their traditions. Within the teaching of these traditions, I am also exploring how various aspects of music practices teach about race-both in line with the US system of race as Black and White, and with the older New Orleanian racial system which includes a category between Black and White: Creole.

I had gone to New Orleans in August of 2005 for one month of preliminary fieldwork. Obviously, Hurricane Katrina cut that time short, and Rita soon came to further devastate the city. Disaster recovery is a long process that spans years, rather than months. Further, all events are shaped by what came before them; the poverty and racial issues that beleaguered New Orleans before the storm may have been brought into greater relief because of hurricane Katrina, but they were not new. Neither was the public face of the Crescent City: music, food, and Mardi Gras represented New Orleans culture to the broader US imagination. And for many, this cultural heritage was what made "bringing back" New Orleans a worthwhile US endeavour. One year, and half a dozen post-Katrina research trips later, I find the music of the city to be ever-iconic in both the tourist and local imagination of New Orleanian cultural uniqueness. I will relocate to New Orleans for in January of 2007 to conduct long-term research on notions of tradition, music practices, and race in roots music communities—a project I find more compelling now than ever.

1998 - B.A., Anthropology, California State University, Fresno
2001 - M.A. Music Performance, California State University, Fresno
2004 - UVA Qualifying Paper for Advancement to Candidacy
Infectious Music: Disease, Race, Vice, and Early Jazz in New Orleans

Publication: Doing Anthropology in New Orleans, Before and After Katrina. Anthropology News, vol. 46, no. 8 (November 2005): 21-23