Charles Capwell holds a Ph.D. in musicology from Harvard University and was on the faculty of the School of Music at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign for 30 years. A former editor of the journal Ethnomusicology, his further work in West Bengal concentrated on Sourindro Mohun Tagore at the interface with colonial culture. His more recent research has been on the nexus between popular music and Islam in Indonesia.