Matt Sakakeeny has lived and worked in New Orleans since 1997. His research explores the intersection of music with race, economics, and politics, particularly in the performance of African American music. His dissertation, “Instruments of Power: New Orleans Brass Bands and the Politics of Performance,” considers the brass band as a powerful symbol of local black culture. Research in New Orleans was facilitated by a fieldwork grant from the National Science Foundation and a writing fellowship from the Whiting Foundation. Matt has published in the journals Current Musicology, Space and Culture, Allegro, and The Jazz Archivist,  contributed to Mojo and Wax Poetics magazines, and filed reports for public radio's All Things Considered, Marketplace, and WWOZ's Street Talk . He first moved to New Orleans as the co-producer of the public radio program American Routes and he continues to serve as Senior Contributing Producer.

Ongoing Research Projects:
Manuscript  Instruments of Power: New Orleans Brass Bands and the Politics of Performance.
Forthcoming essay “Representing Blackness and New Orleans-ness: The Black Men of Labor Social Aid & Pleasure Club" for the volume  Bands, Place, and Community Music Making.
Forthcoming article “The New Orleans Brass Band and the Accumulation of Authenticity”
Board member for the Roots of Music afterschool music program:  http://rootsofmusic.blogspot.com

CV:
2008 PhD, Ethnomusicology, Columbia University

2003 M.A. Musicology, Tulane University