Biography
Abdul Aziz is a freelance photojournalist, filmmaker, and serial entrepreneur. For nearly two decades, he has worked to document conflict, war, social issues and culture spanning the globe from the Middle East and Africa to the far reaches of the Himalayas. His photos have been published by opinion leading news agencies worldwide. Most recently his work has focused on the rise of white nationalism in the United States and the removal of Confederate monuments in cities at the center of the debate, such as New Orleans and Charlottesville.
Matt Sakakeeny studies the intersections of music, race, and power. He is the author of Roll With It: Brass Bands in the Streets of New Orleans (Duke Press, 2013) and articles in several edited collections and journals, including Ethnomusicology, Black Music Research Journal, and Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society. He is also co-editor of Keywords in Sound (Duke Press, 2015) and his work consistently troubles the boundaries between music and sound. He has received grants from the National Science Foundation, Awards to Louisiana Artists and Scholars, and the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South, and awards from the Society for Ethnomusicology, the Popular Music Section of SEM, and Tulane University’s Center for Public Service. As part of his community-engaged research, Matt is a board member for Roots of Music and the Dinerral Shavers Educational Fund, and has published in media outlets such as Oxford American and NPR’s All Things Considered. He is also the guitarist and bandleader of Los Po-Boy-Citos.
Research
New Orleans is in the middle of a “marching band belt” that stretches from Florida to Texas, where middle schools serve as “feeder schools” for high schools, and high schools as training grounds for Historically Black Colleges and Universities such as Southern and Florida A&M. Here, football games are overshadowed by halftime shows and drum majors receive more notoriety than quarterbacks. Generations of jazz, blues, soul, and funk musicians got their start in band. Countless others have been shaped by the experiences of social bonding, creative expression, and self-discipline that are inherent to playing music with others. Band Together: Music Education in the Margins of America is a collaborative effort between photojournalist Abdul Aziz and ethnomusicologist Matt Sakakeeny that seeks to document and explore the critical role that marching band culture continues to play in New Orleans and the greater Gulf South.
