Melvin L. Butler is an associate professor in the Department of Musicology of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. A scholar-performer with broad interests in music and religion of the African diaspora, he has conducted field research on popular music and religion in Haiti, Jamaica, and the United States. In these transnational contexts, he interrogates the cultural politics of popular culture and religious worship while attending to the role of musical style in constructing individual and collective identities. His research explores black music-making, improvisation, and transcendence, with an emphasis on discourses of cultural authenticity and power that inflect Spirit-filled Christian worship.
Dr. Butler's first book, Island Gospel: Pentecostal Music and Identity in Jamaica and the United States (University of Illinois Press, 2019), examines the theological and experiential connections between Jamaican and African American Pentecostal music and gospel performance. His second book, tentatively titled Claiming Haiti: Music and the Cultural Politics of Transcendence in Haiti, is under contract with Oxford University Press. At the heart of his work lies a critical reconsideration of how music relates to processes of boundary-crossing, identity formation, and social positioning in post-colonial contexts. His awards include a Ford Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellowship (1999-2003) and a Fulbright IIE field research grant (2001-2002). In addition, he was the Thurgood Marshall Dissertation Fellow at Dartmouth College in 2004-2005. From 2008 to 2010, he served as Secretary of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (U.S. Branch).
An internationally acclaimed jazz saxophonist, Butler has performed with Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band for over two decades. He is featured with this ensemble on several albums, including Brian Blade Fellowship (Blue Note 1998), Perceptual (Blue Note 2000), Season of Changes (Verve 2008), the Grammy-nominated Landmarks (Verve 2014), and Body and Shadow (2017). He has worked with several other jazz artists as well, including Betty Carter, John Daversa, Joey DeFrancesco, Eric Essix, Christian McBride, Jimmy McGriff, Dr. Lonnie Smith, and Reuben Wilson. Butler is a featured soloist on the Grammy-winning recording by the John Daversa Big Band, American Dreamers: Voices of Hope, Music of Freedom (2018). He has also toured the U.S., Europe, and the Caribbean with celebrated Haitian band Tabou Combo, with whom he recorded three albums--Why Not? (1997), 360 Degrees (1997), and Sans Limites (2000). He earned his bachelor’s degree from Berklee College of Music, and an MA and PhD in music from New York University.
Dr. Butler's first book, Island Gospel: Pentecostal Music and Identity in Jamaica and the United States (University of Illinois Press, 2019), examines the theological and experiential connections between Jamaican and African American Pentecostal music and gospel performance. His second book, tentatively titled Claiming Haiti: Music and the Cultural Politics of Transcendence in Haiti, is under contract with Oxford University Press. At the heart of his work lies a critical reconsideration of how music relates to processes of boundary-crossing, identity formation, and social positioning in post-colonial contexts. His awards include a Ford Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellowship (1999-2003) and a Fulbright IIE field research grant (2001-2002). In addition, he was the Thurgood Marshall Dissertation Fellow at Dartmouth College in 2004-2005. From 2008 to 2010, he served as Secretary of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (U.S. Branch).
An internationally acclaimed jazz saxophonist, Butler has performed with Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band for over two decades. He is featured with this ensemble on several albums, including Brian Blade Fellowship (Blue Note 1998), Perceptual (Blue Note 2000), Season of Changes (Verve 2008), the Grammy-nominated Landmarks (Verve 2014), and Body and Shadow (2017). He has worked with several other jazz artists as well, including Betty Carter, John Daversa, Joey DeFrancesco, Eric Essix, Christian McBride, Jimmy McGriff, Dr. Lonnie Smith, and Reuben Wilson. Butler is a featured soloist on the Grammy-winning recording by the John Daversa Big Band, American Dreamers: Voices of Hope, Music of Freedom (2018). He has also toured the U.S., Europe, and the Caribbean with celebrated Haitian band Tabou Combo, with whom he recorded three albums--Why Not? (1997), 360 Degrees (1997), and Sans Limites (2000). He earned his bachelor’s degree from Berklee College of Music, and an MA and PhD in music from New York University.