Melvin Gibbs

Melvin Gibbs

@melvingibbs.bsky.social

Human Creator: Composer/Musician/Writer Out Now! : Amasia: Anamibia Sessions 2 on Hausu Mountain Next Up: Electrical Field Of Love - out March 27th on Pi Recordings and How Black Music Took Over The World - pub. Apr 14th on Basic Books

800 Followers 294 Following 904 Posts Joined Nov 2024
2 days ago

my most unexpected hot take is:
Fcuk Swans!
I hate them all lol
(juskiddin' - I don't Hate anyone or anything
but I'm deadass about the f swans part)

2 0 1 0
2 days ago

seeing "X is shocking" on an internet post will normally guarantee that I scroll past it
But this genuinely IS shocking
He obviously believes in the cause
very Eichmann-like

2 0 0 0
3 days ago

1) making "Product" is not the same as making Music
2) If you're gonna talk about the "working class" and "production" -- you need to talk about workers OWNING the means of production ---
3) Music creators are owners by default by law
so SUNO's business model (like this framing) is a flim-flam

20 4 1 0
4 days ago

I’m old enough to remember Fox News whining about Obama wearing a tan suit. Those same people ain’t gonna say jack about this fashion crime

5 0 1 0
5 days ago

so
the US definitely targeted the school
got it

3 1 0 0
6 days ago

what you said: right
what they said: wrong

the mass audience is not going away
corporate America's ability to drive what they pay attention to is
& "Micro-Community", like "Superfan" is a digital marketing term - an attempt to redefine & capture something that already exists beyond technofeudalism

5 0 0 0
1 week ago

I've said it before
but at this point it's undeniable
the French postmodernists/deconstructionists were right
and their naysayers are wrong
right now
we're watching the most speculative/far out s#it
Baudrillard talked about
play out in real time
he's owed an apology lol

5 1 0 1
1 week ago

If he's saying "don't listen to lawyers" publicly
He's already said it privately
to the people at DHS & ICE

4 0 0 0
1 week ago

the "how" of "How Black Music Took Over The World"
is more a "This is How" examination of how Black music embeds itself in culture & a look at what that culture is/consists of
& less a David Byrne-style "How Music Works" breakdown of the structures surrounding (Black) music

just so you know

3 0 1 0
1 week ago
Preview
Melvin Gibbs’s How Black Music Took Over the World | The Brooklyn Rail For a relatively short (three-hundred pages) book on an enormous subject, it may seem impossible to be comprehensive. But Gibbs has the advantage of being one of music’s great inside-men, and he disce...

"an illuminating and comprehensive story"
"great Black musicology"

just in time for World Book Day
you can pre-order the book using the link in the article

thank you @gtra1n.bsky.social
brooklynrail.org/2026/03/musi...

18 9 1 2
1 week ago

this was my exact talking point 10 years ago when I was pres of
Content Creators Coalition (thankfully renamed "Artist Rights Now")
the corps I was addressing were Spotify & Google - but the point stands

6 1 1 0
1 week ago

we were working on new music for Arto
I make no promises about when you'll hear it
but it's likely that you'll hear it eventually

16 1 3 0
1 week ago

here's a track that Arto did with Nação Zumbi back in the day
with Pupillo on it. Denge (the band's bassist) is playing bass.
I'm playing keys - other than the Rhodes, which played by Stephen Barber. I'm doing the rhythm stuff, noise pads, and organ.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrmK...

12 2 0 1
1 week ago

Arto Lindsay & I worked at Mario Caldato Jr's (who produced this record) studio a few months ago
He told us about it, but I didn't get a chance to hear the record.
I'm looking forward to it.

15 3 1 1
1 week ago

Grammarly WAS a useful tool

but a couple of years ago
it started making editing suggestions that in 2026 are recognizable markers of AI slop

I decided back then that my "mistakes" were better than its suggestions
and turned it off

1 0 0 0
1 week ago

I’m gonna go ahead and say it
there are some great current jazz groups
but
There is no group this group’s level right now
Murray/Lake/Bluiett…AND Hemphill?
nobody’s touching them

9 2 2 0
1 week ago
YouTube
Edwin Starr- War (HQ) YouTube video by The Match Me Podcast

War!
What Is It Good For?
Absolutely Nothing!
youtu.be/dQHUAJTZqF0

8 1 0 0
1 week ago

there's no way to blame this on DEI

0 0 0 0
2 weeks ago

until now
the justification for fascism has been
"they make the trains run on time"
Mamdani's stealing that from them
"Democratic Socialism keeps the streets clean & the city(s) running"
sounds good to me

5 0 1 0
2 weeks ago

I LOVE this video
b/c of the onstage power play
Prince set the band up perfectly, then broke them down for Miles
Miles (musically) said: F that - u ain't MY boss mf
he waited - then played when HE felt like it
you can see Prince shaking his head in disgust
lmao

16 1 0 0
2 weeks ago

here's another example of counterclockwise ritual movement in the Black world - as seen in Haitian Vodou
@blackazizanansi.blacksky.app
utd-ir.tdl.org/server/api/c...

4 2 0 0
2 weeks ago

It's like saying
"Kool Herc created hip-hop"
or
"Buddy Bolden created jazz"
the story is not that simple

6 2 0 0
2 weeks ago

I wrote about the ring shout in "How Black Music Took Over The World"
- counterclockwise circular rotating movement isn't JUST about circling the Kaaba
- that would be the case on the Bilali's' islands - but not necessarily on others
- it was pan-African
which is why it stuck

15 3 1 2
2 weeks ago

I'm a fan of the furniture music/ambient music concept
but the goal of Turiyasangitananda & Miles' music is VERY FAR from the goals of Eno & Satie

6 1 1 0
2 weeks ago

I just did Black Bliss Krishnanada
www.fouroneoneprojects.org/events/black...
so this is front of mind for me
I don't feel like the term "ambient jazz" works

what we just did, what Alice Coltrane & Miles did
is a different intention than
Andre 3K/Nala Sinaphro/Floating Points & Pharoah

4 0 1 1
2 weeks ago

just got caught up on the BAFTA N- word situation
simple question: if there was a 2 hour tape delay
specifically for the purpose of being able to cut out swear words - why didn't they cut THAT one?

8 0 0 0
2 weeks ago

back in the day I'd talk abt it in terms of
inside/outside
inside=internet outside=irl
outside has 100% effect outside & significant effect inside
inside has fractional effect inside & slight to negligible effect outside

knowing that, where should you direct your efforts,
& how?

4 0 0 0
2 weeks ago

text-based info spread won't be "viral"
it'll be like this:

3 0 0 0
2 weeks ago

Bluesky in 2026 functions the way Twitter did back in the
Arab Spring days --- it's a news service
but cause its 2026
you won't see its influence publicly

info-based influence/movement isn't "viral"

2 0 0 0
2 weeks ago

when I see ppl on here arguing going back to Elmo's World
I laugh to myself
Twitter NEVER drove irl "engagement" - never translated in sales!
& anybody who posts on here thinking that (their) text/written posts should go viral in the Tiktok era (?) - I can't help them

4 0 0 2