When It Comes to Music, UCLA Professor Is Spreading the Gospel

California is known for a lot of different kinds of music, but gospel is not usually among them. Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje hopes to change that.

The UCLA associate professor of ethnomusicology last week delivered a paper on the history of gospel in California at a seminar at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. The focus of her paper was on gospel from 1930 to 1970.

DjeDje began researching gospel music and its Los Angeles roots almost six years ago. Although she found a wealth of information, she discovered that gospel music had been largely ignored by people on the West Coast.

“I think this is because the media and Hollywood overshadow it,” said the 44-year-old Culver City resident. “Those of us who were out here tried to document traditions on the East Coast and in Africa rather than in our own neighborhood.”

DjeDje set to work on writing, collecting and editing articles for an anthology. In 1989, “African Musicology: Current Trends, Volume I,” a collection of essays on African and African-American music, was published. A companion book, “African Musicology: Current Trends, Volume II” was published last year.

DjeDje is also one of the contributors to the volumes that include essays by noted African and African-American ethnomusicology scholars.

DjeDje said she became interested in ethnomusicology when, as a classical piano student at Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn., she took a class in African-American music.

“I was dumbfounded,” she said.

Changing her career plans, DjeDje went on to complete a master’s degree and Ph.D. at UCLA in ethnomusicology. She has conducted fieldwork in several countries in West Africa and authored a number of books.

“I don’t consider myself to be an authority,” she said. “I am a person who is able to discuss the tradition and bring all of this wonderful material (out) so it can be studied.”

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The West Los Angeles College music department has named the winners of its annual concerto competition.

Junior and intermediate winners were violinists Yvonne Lam, Jennie Kwon and pianist Anne Yen. Senior winners were flutist Julie Scubarth and violinist Jennifer Bai.

Winners will perform with the Marina del Rey-Westchester Symphony Orchestra in coming events.

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Stephen Knox will make a presentation at the annual conference of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics March 26-28 at the New School for Social Research in New York City.

The first undergraduate to make such a presentation, Knox will discuss his research project comparing the economies of the United States and Sweden.

Knox is a senior majoring in economics at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

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County Board of Supervisors Chairman Ed Edelman has reappointed Anne Greer to the 15-member Los Angeles County Consumer Affairs Advisory Commission.

As a commissioner, the West Hollywood resident’s duties include ascertaining consumer needs through public meetings, conferences and making recommendations to the director of the County’s Department of Consumer Affairs on a variety of consumer programs and issues.

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