In this paper, I draw on Dorinne Kondo's notion of world-making (2018) in combination with Jayna Brown's theorization of Black Utopias (2021) to argue for a more capacious understanding of Black musical world-buidling through an examination of the musical practices of composer, pianist, and multi-instrumentalist Patrice Rushen (b. 1954). Within, I employ comparative musical analysis of three performances and compositions of Rushen's, "Shortie's Portion" (1974) "Superstar" (1984), and "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory" (2004) to demonstrate how her musical identity, one emergent from and devleoped within Black musical history, is maintained and developed across these different modalities. A relatively understudied figure in academic music studies, Rushen's work is not only exemplary of the ways Black musicians challenge simple generic delimitation, but also one whose popularity amongst Black listeners calls for closer attention.

Guiding my analysis throughout are the musical, historical, and theoretical insights gained from my personal interviews with Rushen alongside those published in public venues. To parse the often intersecting and overlapping ways that Rushen's study and knowledge of Black musical history can be heard across genres and time periods, I employ Michael Silverstein's notions "indexical order" and "ethno-metapragmatics" (2003). Silverstein's work offers an analytical framework for recognizing and addressing the ways the multiple layers of semiosis, and indexicality in particular, inform and shape one another in social life.Though unique in the ways she deploys her knowledge and study of Black musical history, the methodology presented within s intended for wider application across Black music studies.