Thomas Brothers
Professor of Music
Thomas Brothers joined the faculty at Duke in 1991 after completing his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley. He has published three books on Louis Armstrong, most recently "Louis Armstrong Master of Modernism" (2014), which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in biography. Professor Brothers regularly teaches in African-American music and rock, as well as in the medieval and renaissance periods. His most recent book is "Help! The Beatles Duke Ellington and the Magic of Collaboration" (W.W. Norton 2018).
Current Appointments & Affiliations
- Professor of Music, Music, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2008
Contact Information
- 071 Mary Duke Biddle, Durham, NC 27708
- Box 90665, Durham, NC 27708-0665
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tdb@duke.edu
(919) 660-3309
- Background
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Education, Training, & Certifications
- Ph.D., University of California - Berkeley 1991
- M.A., University of California - Berkeley 1982
- B.A., University of Pennsylvania 1979
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Previous Appointments & Affiliations
- Associate Professor of Music, Music, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 1998 - 2008
- Assistant Professor, Music, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 1991 - 1998
- Recognition
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In the News
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JUN 15, 2021 -
APR 21, 2015 -
APR 21, 2015 Duke Today -
MAY 5, 2014 The Forward -
MAY 5, 2014 The Forward -
APR 3, 2014 The News & Observer -
MAR 18, 2014 “The Tavis Smiley Show” -
MAR 18, 2014 The Tavis Smiley Show -
FEB 28, 2014 The Denver Post, The Washington Post -
FEB 28, 2014 The New Yorker -
FEB 10, 2014 The Washington Post -
FEB 10, 2014 The News & Observer -
FEB 10, 2014 The Dinner Party Download
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Awards & Honors
- Appointed Shastri by Shambhala International. Shambhala International. November 2013
- Visiting Artist Award ($12,000). Provost and Council of the Arts, Duke University. January 2010
- Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, 2009-2010. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. November 2009
- Fellowship. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. 2009
- Fellow. National Humanities Center. 2003
- Publications & Artistic Works
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Selected Publications
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Books
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Brothers, Thomas. Help!: The Beatles, Duke Ellington, and the Magic of Collaboration. W. W. Norton & Company, 2018.
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Brothers, T. Louis Armstrong Master of Modernism. W. W. Norton, 2014.
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Brothers, T. Louis Armstrong’s New Orleans. W. W. Norton, 2006.
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Brothers, T. Louis Armstrong: In His Own Words. Oxford University Press, 1999.
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Brothers, T. Chromatic Beauty in the Late-Medieval Chanson: An Interpretation of Manuscript Chromatic Beauty in the Late-Medieval Chanson: An Interpretation of Manuscript Accidentals. Cambridge University Press, 1997.
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Academic Articles
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Brothers, T. “Gladly Learn and Gladly Teach.” Confluence: The Journal of Graduate Liberal Studies xv, no. 1 (2009).
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Brothers, T. “Review of How Low Can You Go: Anthology of the String Bass by Dick Spottswood and Steven Ledbetter.” Journal of the Society for American Music 2:1 (February 2008): 119–21.
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Brothers, T. “Blues et Jazz.” La Revue Du Jazz Authentique Oct 2008; Nov 2008, no. 574–575 (2008).
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Brothers, T. “Review of All of Me: The Complete Discography of Louis Armstrong by Jos Willems.” Asrc Journal 2:1 (February 2007): 119–21.
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Brothers, T. “Flats and Chansons in MS Florence, B.N., P. 26.” Edited by Anne Stone and Yolanda Plumley, 2007.
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Brothers, T. “Review of Pioneers of Jazz: The Story of the Creole Band by Lawrence Gushee.” Journal of the American Musicological Society fall 2006 (2007): 747–54.
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Brothers, Thomas. “Review of Pioneers of jazz: The story of the Creole Band.” Journal of the American Musicological Society 59, no. 3 (2006): 747–55. https://doi.org/10.1525/jams.2006.59.3.747.Full Text Link to Item
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Thomas Brothers, K. M. “Louis Armstrong, the 'Saints' and the 'Boys'.” Musica Oggi 21 (2001): 5–21.
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Brothers, Thomas, and Laurence Bergreen. “Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life.” American Music 16, no. 2 (1998): 234–234. https://doi.org/10.2307/3052572.Full Text
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Huot, Sylvia. “Allegorical Play in the Old French Motet: The Sacred and the Profane in Thirteenth-Century Polyphony.” Music and Letters 79 (1998): 584–85.
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Brothers, Thomas. “Musica Ficta and Harmony in Machaut's Songs.” Journal of Musicology 15, no. 4 (October 1997): 501–28. https://doi.org/10.1525/jm.1997.15.4.03a00040.Full Text
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Brothers, Thomas. “Ideology and Aurality in the Vernacular Traditions of African-American Music (CA. 1890-1950).” Black Music Research Journal 17, no. 2 (1997): 169–169. https://doi.org/10.2307/779368.Full Text
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Brothers, Thomas. “Rob C. Wegman. Born for the Muses: The Life and Masses of Jacob Obrecht. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994. xxv + 406 pp. $45.00.” Renaissance Quarterly 50, no. 2 (1997): 652–53. https://doi.org/10.2307/3039243.Full Text
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Thomas Brothers, K. R. “Contenance Angloise and Accidentals in Some Motets by Du Fay.” Plainsong and Medieval Music, no. 6 (1997): 21–51.
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al, Yasuhiro Fujioka et, and Yasuhiro Fujioka et Brothers T. “Review of John Coltrane: A Discography and Musical Biography.” Fontes Artis Musicae 43 (1996): 305–6.
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BROTHERS, T. “Review of MENSURATION AND PROPORTION SIGNS - ORIGINS AND EVOLUTION - BERGER,AMB.” Renaissance Quarterly 48, no. 3 (1995): 674–75. https://doi.org/10.2307/2862908.Full Text Link to Item
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Thomas Brothers, K. R. “Sharps in Medee Fu: Questions of Style and Analysis.” Studi Musicali, no. 24 (1995): 3–25.
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Brothers, Thomas. “Solo and Cycle in African-American Jazz.” The Musical Quarterly 78, no. 3 (1994): 479–509. https://doi.org/10.1093/mq/78.3.479.Full Text
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Thomas Brothers, K. R. “Vestiges of the Isorhythmic Tradition in Masses and Motets, ca. 1450-1475.” Journal of the American Musicological Society 44 (1991): 1–56.
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Thomas Brothers, K. R. “Two Chansons Rustiques a 4 by Claudin de Sermisy and Clement Janequin.” Journal of the American Musicological Society 34 (1981): 305–24.
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Book Sections
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Brothers, T. ““Who’s On First, What’s Second, and Where Did They Come From?: The Social-Musical Textures of Early Jazz”.” In Early Twentieth-Century Brass Idioms: Art, Jazz and Other Popular Traditions, edited by Howard Weiner. Scarecrow Press, 2008.
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Brothers, T. “Music.” In Lives and Legacies: An Encyclopedia of People Who Changed the World. Oryx Press, 2001.
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Brothers, T. “Accidentals in Binchois’s Songs.” In Binchois Studies, edited by Dennis Slavin and Andrew Kirkman, 251–75. Oxford University Press, 2000.
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Brothers, T. “Review of The Birth of Bebop.” In Brightleaf: A Southern Review of Books, 16–17, 1999.
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Conference Papers
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Brothers, T. ““New Orleans and the African Musical Diaspora,”,” 2007.
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Artistic Works & Non-Print Media
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Musical Performances
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- Teaching & Mentoring
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Recent Courses
- AAAS 188: Black Music and the Soul of America 2023
- ARTHIST 89S: First-Year Seminar 2023
- ETHICS 89S: Special Topic: First-Year Seminar in Ethics 2023
- I&E 89S: Special Topics 2023
- MEDREN 201S: Music History I: Antiquity Through Renaissance 2023
- MUSIC 89S: First-Year Seminar 2023
- MUSIC 147: Black Music and the Soul of America 2023
- MUSIC 255S: Music History I: Antiquity Through Renaissance 2023
- MUSIC 791: Independent Study 2023
- AAAS 188: Black Music and the Soul of America 2022
- ETHICS 89S: Special Topic: First-Year Seminar in Ethics 2022
- MUSIC 89S: First-Year Seminar 2022
- MUSIC 147: Black Music and the Soul of America 2022
- MUSIC 790S-1: Seminar in the History of Music 2022
- MUSIC 791: Independent Study 2022
- ETHICS 89S: Special Topic: First-Year Seminar in Ethics 2021
- LS 770: Selected Topics 2021
- MEDREN 201S: Music History I: Antiquity Through Renaissance 2021
- MUSIC 89S: First-Year Seminar 2021
- MUSIC 144: Meet the Beatles and the 1960s 2021
- MUSIC 255S: Music History I: Antiquity Through Renaissance 2021
- MUSIC 393: Research Independent Study 2021
- MUSIC 561S: Analysis of Early Music 2021
- MUSIC 791: Independent Study 2021
- Scholarly, Clinical, & Service Activities
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Presentations & Appearances
- Louis Armstrong's New Orleans. Theater of the American South. May 19, 2012 2012
- “Louis Armstrong: The Making of a Great Melodist”. American Musicological Society and the Library of Congress. March 29, 2012 2012
- Louis Armstrong's New Orleans. October 20, 2009 2009
- Tenth Annual Bill Russell Lecture. May 17, 2009 2009
- “Musical New Orleans and the African Diaspora". December 16, 2008 2008
- Colloquium. April 30, 2008 2008
- Colloquium. April 29, 2008 2008
- Colloquium. April 28, 2008 2008
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Service to the Profession
- Editorial Board. November 24, 2013 2013
- Advisory Board for academic journal Rivista Italiana di Musicologia,. November 29, 2012 2012
- Associate Editor for the Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies. November 29, 2012 2012
- Editorial board member for Black Music Research Journal. November 29, 2012 2012
- Editorial Board. 2012 - 2013 2012 - 2013
- Editorial board for Black Music Research Journal. December 16, 2011 2011
- Award Committee for best book in American Music, awarded by the American Musicological Society. 2009 - 2012 2009 - 2012
- Council of the American Musicological Society. December 16, 2008 2008
- Chair, Nominations Committee for Honorary Members, AMS. 2008 - 2009 2008 - 2009
- Chair, nomination committee for honorary and corresponding members, American Musicological Society. 2008 - 2009 2008 - 2009
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Service to Duke
- Department colloquia chair. November 24, 2013 - November 24, 2013 2013
- French exam. November 24, 2013 - November 24, 2013 2013
- Italian exam. November 24, 2013 - November 24, 2013 2013
- Master of Arts, Liberal Studies, Advisory Board. November 24, 2013 2013
- French exam. December 7, 2010 - December 7, 2010 2010
- Italian exam. December 7, 2010 - December 7, 2010 2010
- Latin exam. December 7, 2010 - December 7, 2010 2010
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