Abdel Karim Bader, a cosmopolitan oud performer and teacher, was born in the Arab world in the early 1920s and immigrated to the United States of America in the early nineteen seventies. This thesis is an oral history that explores Bader as a carrier of an Arabic musical tradition, tarab, through three topics: biography, pedagogy, and improvisation. Bader's biography unveils a rich social and musical persona which is understood through the lens of tarab musicianship and values. He favors a pragmatic apprenticeship method, common to tarab musicians, that heavily relies on oral methods to transmit ideas, repertoire, and stylistic subtleties. Finally, Bader's improvisatory thought is influenced by both his knowledge of Arabic music theory and his performance experience, and it is exposed through examples from my lessons and an analysis of a solo improvisation. I have been Bader's apprentice since January 2010 and view this study as a contribution to a little-known facet of Arab-American identity and cultural practice.
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