Marc T. Gaspard Bolin
Performer/Scholar
musician, jazz scholar, photographer, filmmaker
Lecturer at the University of California, Los Angeles:
Jazz in American Culture (Dept. of Ethnomusicology) and
Jazz and the Political Imagination (Dept. of African American Studies)
Adjunct Professor at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
Tuba/Euphonium Studio, Ethnomusicology: History, Theory, and Methods, and World of Music (Music Department)
about Marc
Performer
Studio recordings, soundtrack recordings, live concerts, television appearances, radio jockeying and on-air guesting, and more…
Arranger
Commissions for three-part horn section, big band, wind ensemble, and orchestral formats in a variety of styles, from "pop" to rock, to R&B, to salsa, and jazz…
SCHOLAR
My work as an ethnomusicologist is grounded in my own jazz practice and deeply informed by my collaborators. I am a Lecturer at the University of California, Los Angeles, where I teach Jazz in American Culture (50A+B), Women in Jazz, and Introduction to Ethnomusicology.
Duke Ellington’s
Queenie Pie
In the early fall of 2007, Marc received a commission to complete Duke Ellington's unfinished opera Queenie Pie by Oakland Opera Theater. Marc’s influence continues today in this much loved production.
highlights
EDUCATION
Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology, UCLA
M.A. in Ethnomusicology, UCLA
M.M. in Tuba Performance, UCLA
B.M. in Tuba and Trombone Performance, UCLA
Teaching Postitions
Continuing Lecturer (2022 - present) Department of Ethnomusicology, UCLA Jazz in American Culture, Women in Jazz, Introduction to Ethnomusicology 101
Lecturer (2024 - present) Department of African American Studies, UCLA Jazz in the Political Imagination
Adjunct Professor (2024 - ongoing) California State Polytechnic University, Pomona Tuba/Euphonium Studio, Ethnomusicology: History, Theory, and Methods, and World of Music (Music Department)
Adjunct Instructor, Longy School of Music of Bard College, Los Angeles, CA (2021; Spring term) 5-week Social Justice Music Research Project/Ethnomusicology Module Master of Music in Music Education Program
Principal Lecturer, Department of Ethnomusicology, UCLA (2017; Spring term) Ellingtonia
awards
Claudia Mitchell-Kernan Award
Contributions to Scholarship and Education in the Field of Jazz
Name Included on the SFJAZZ Center's Franklin Street Wall
In Recognition of Contribution to the San Francisco Jazz Community
PRESENTATIONS
"Jazz at the Fringes: Community, Identity, and Placemaking in Venice, CA," 8th Annual Rhythm Changes Conference, Jazz Encounters, Graz, Austria
Pre-concert talk, "Marginalized Mavericks: Minority Composers Redefining Classical Traditions," LA Philharmonic's UPBEAT LIVE! Los Angeles Philharmonic, Walt Disney Concert Hall; Ballade in A minor, Op. 33, Samuel Coleridge Taylor; Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, Leonard Bernstein; La Lección Tres, Victor Wooten; Thomas Wilkins, conductor, 2023
"The Congo Square Ideology: Congo Square is, not was" Annual Meeting of the Society for American Music, Minneapolis, MN, 2023
Pre-concert talk, "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in Concert John Williams Spotlight," LA Philharmonic's UPBEAT LIVE! Los Angeles Philharmonic, Walt Disney Concert Hall; Gustavo Dudamel, conductor 2023
Pre-concert talk, "Tchaikovsky and Adès," LA Philharmonic's UPBEAT LIVE! Los Angeles Philharmonic, Walt Disney Concert Hall; Elim Chan, conductor; Leila Josefowicz, violin; Los Angeles, CA
Pre-concert talk, "Tchaikovsky & Ellington," LA Philharmonic's UPBEAT LIVE! Los Angeles Philharmonic, Walt Disney Concert Hall; Gustavo Dudamel, conductor, 2022
"The New Orleans Second Line: A Tradition on the Move," seventh Rhythm Changes Conference, Jazz Then & Now, Conservatorium van Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 2022
"Black Mardi Gras Indians: Their History, Musical Influence, and Audio Legacy," Annual Meeting of the Society for American Music, Tucson, AZ, 2022
ethnographic film screenings
My Brother’s Keeper (ethnographic film)
Selected for participation at the MAAM Film Festival, National Museum of Anthropology Madrid, Spain, 2021
Selected for screening at ETNOFF 7, Skopje, Macedonia, 2021
panel discussions
“Queenie Pie, Ellington and Colorism”
Panel discussion, CONNECT Series, Lexington Philharmonic Society, 2021
PUBLICATIONS
Jazz Cultures in Motion: Currents of Movement and Meaning: Volume 2, 1st Ed., Kendall Hunt Publishing Company (under contract; anticipated publication date, January 2026).
Jazz Cultures in Motion: Currents of Movement and Meaning: Volume 1, 1st Ed., Kendall Hunt Publishing Company (under contract; anticipated publication date, August 2025).
Continuities at the Center of the Jazz Universe: The New Orleans Brass Band Tradition, Congo Square, Mardi Gras Indians, and More, University Press of Mississippi (under contract and currently under review).
"Congo Square and the Second Line: Their Relevance to Shifting Narratives about Jazz History." Journal of Jazz Studies, 15 (1), (2024): 39-73. https://doi.org/10.14713/jjs.v15i1.255