Michael Udow

Dear Rebecca (aka 'Becky' from the "good old days of yore"),

Please accept our deepest condolences as we just now heard from Susan and David Barron that your father has passed.

Nancy (Wagner) and I hope that you will share our thoughts with the entire Nettl family.   

Your father, "Professor Nettl," was such a genuine, warm, vibrant, and engaging personality who as you all know so well, delved deeply and passionately into his research. His global view of world music instilled a keen interest in us in learning for the pure joy of experiencing a new and vibrant way of listening. Specifically, in your father's African Music survey course, he generously and purposefully shared his knowledge not only on the music of West African communities, including the Yoruba and Ewe talking, signal, festival drumming and their singing traditions. Then moving into the embiere and amadinda music from Uganda, the sanza thumb -piano traditions and amazingly, the 4-part harmony singing developed independently of the Western Art Music traditions. His generosity extended to having William Amawaku, who you probably remember quite well share in a number of those presentations. Bill, an Ewe master-drummer, having arrived from his studies at the University of Ghana with K. Niktia, contributed his first-hand experiences with your father's unequivocally support. Together, your father and Bill imprinted on our psyche that these musical traditions were inseparable, and intrinsically interwoven with dance (and often song), the celebrations, and the rites of passage into the fabric of each societies traditions. 

Nancy and I sincerely appreciated how your father was able to help Bill organize the Ewe drumming class that we both enrolled in for the entire year, which we thoroughly enjoyed. All of this occurring at the height of the Viet Nam war, the March on Washinton and so many of the critically important civil rights protests going in this country at that time and a country, perhaps even more fragile, today. Your father's dedicated work resonated well beyond the fields of music and anthropology Dr. Martin Luther King Day is this Monday. I think with fondness how your father's course embraced the true spirit of diversity and inclusion. Nancy's roommate at that time, Martha Davis, a PHD student in anthropology, took many of your father's courses and on weekends we would have long late-night conversations while making bread and playing Scrabble discussing issues brought up in class. My introduction to Persian music, performing with a group of students from that region was also a direct result that grew out of students studying with your father.

Alas, a few years ago, the last time I was on the U of I campus,  your father was ill and while we both were hoping to set up a get-together, he wasn't well enough for that to happen.

I hope that perhaps this video link embraces the spirit of what your father shared with me, which in turn I have passed on to students that I have had the pleasure of working with throughout my career. In some small way, I hope that it will provide you and the family with some sense of comfort and a small token of my appreciation for your father's consummate guidance.   https://global.oup.com/us/companion.websites/9780190902957/res/ch1/2/