Melvin Gibbs

Sometimes you gotta pop out and show people… www.jazztimes.com/blog/how-bla...

Kodwo is one of the dopest people on the planet - I put him second behind Arthur Jafa in terms of living artistic intellectuals

I had no idea he was still out here. I connect him with ‘80s Black conservatism - when I thought of him as a sort of trollish film criticism version of Stanley Crouch. I see he hasn’t changed a bit lol.

Dese nuts

The Tuskegee Experiment but with infants I want to be shocked But I’m not

this looks like a good event I’m gonna be in Reggio Emilia (IT) with Arto Lindsay that might but If I was in NYC I’d be going

Do Republicans & evangelicals actually READ the Bible? If you had to describe Jesus in one word That word would be Empathetic

notice the use of past tense… there is NO group popular today whose best album is gonna be their live album

laid down some bass for Armand Hammer’s next record last night. You never know what the producer (Andrew Broder in this case) is gonna decide- but I’m pretty confident that at least some of what I laid down will make the final cut s/o to Billy Woods and Elucid

I BEEN telling people that AI is a cult not (just) a form of technology

Dude Got Shot By ICE & Lived So they don’t want him to talk because the officer’s conduct is obviously 10x worse than the officer who shot someone b/c of an alleged shovel attack (which never happened btw)

The Isley Bros are THE most underrated American group 60s: Twist And Shout (!) Jimi Hendrix was in THEIR band 70s: Who’s That Lady/ 3+3 band 80s: Fight The Power interpolated by Public Enemy 90s: Between The Sheets - a 90s hip-hop staple + covers that surpass (Ohio/Summer Breeze/Hello It’s Me)

how is this not Cruel and Unusual Punishment ?

this is an interesting combination gonna listen to how it worked out musically tonight slikback.bandcamp.com/album/eneo

That’s what I did Toni

since this is everyone’s (including The NY Times btw) business model now you gotta decide for yourself if biting into the internet catnip of the day clarifies what you want to say online or muddies it (or maybe you want muddy?)

Plus the day of the pop phenomenon that everyone knows about is dead at least until the next iteration of technology hits & maybe 4ever in this era the only person ALL Americans HAVE to know is the President

it’s highly likely that the ACTUAL biggest song in the US is a Spanish-language song English speakers don’t care about or a K-pop song whose total streams on all formats dwarfs Langlay’s + any NYer who tells me they listen to “Choosing Texas” isn’t a real NY’er imo

“Deep Canyons on Mars” comes in heavy, with a hugely distorted opening solo…In the song’s closing few minutes, a guitar solo -in truth, I can’t tell if it’s Lamar Smith’s electric guitar or either Gibbs’s or Laswell’s electric bass” BOTH solos are bass solos Opening solo: Me Closing solo: B.Laswell

“These are undoubtedly fine books” If they are, then why did you write the rest of this article? the Buzzfeed-ization of The NY Times is kinda sad to see tbh

yesterday I found out that one of my old friends from the neighborhood who moved to the DMV a while back is running the Soul Searchers (formerly Chuck Brown & the Soul Searchers) now

I am also going to present “Geechee Reclaimation”. I’ll rework/remix/reconstitute recordings of “Plantation Echoes”, music from Wadmalaw Island in South Carolina that was performed for George Gershwin when he was writing “Porgy and Bess”. My great-grandfather Solomon Gibbs was one of the performers.

One of the things my book does is shine a light on the musical culture of the Gullah-Geechee - the Guardians of the Ring Shout - THE foundational Black American musical creation. So as a curator, I had Big Ears reach out to Ranky Tanky, the Grammy-winning group who have embraced that tradition.

I’m curating shows related to my book “How Black Music Took Over The World” at Big Ears Festival 2027 including: Ben Lamar Gay, Moor Mother, Vernon Reid, Darius Jones, Chris Ryan Williams, Luke Stewart, Sheree Renee Thomas, Will Calhoun + For more information visit bigearsfestival.org #BigEarsKnox

Elohim - the name of G-d translated as “Lord God” in the King James Bible IS in fact Non-Binary

haven’t watched it yet I definitely will after reading this

I was talking with Douglas Ewart about this record yesterday.

I missed a flight because THEIR error would’ve missed a gig if it wasn’t an off day I bought a seat for my bass - which was exactly the problem They have no people on staff at airports outside of Switzerland - I had call to an agent, then hand my phone to person checking me in at the airport (!)

Solutions to all the world's problems #cartoon

random travel note: Swiss Airlines - part of the Lufthansa group- (not Swissair) is by far the worst airline I’ve flown on that is not officially a budget airline Avoid It If At All Possible

A video I saw said making a living at music was a 20th c. historical anomaly & musicians should be prepared to go back to patronage & dual careers. Well, not catching polio is also a 20th c. anomaly. Should we prepare to go back to having polio again too? Or should we just stop accepting bs framing?

she’s singing on a another dimension now RIP Cassandra Wilson youtu.be/oowxVZEejgU?...

northeasttimes.com/2026/08/31/s...

if any of them had Black American friends they would’ve told them when they say “criminal aliens” they’re talking about ALL of y’all You’re NOT gonna get a pass for being “one of the good ones”

Orange Julius thinking that Ontario is “Canadian” & not a word that came from the original owners of the land is stupid His rebrand of it is a hilarious attempt at Manifest Destiny 2.0

I don’t understand why people are shocked by his views It’s like being shocked when you find out that your favorite crime or sex-glorifying rapper is Republican & a (not so secret) Trump supporter - did you really not understand what they stood for?

my all-time favorite pop science book Thomas Kelleher who edited my book “How Black Music Took Over The World” edited it

I told y’all that tarp was gonna stay up the day they hung it lol Orange Julius is predictably petty

“I have to be blunt here: Our critics are really fucking stupid, and we’ve given them way too much leeway to conjure senile fantasies out of their own illiteracy” defector.com/humanists-ha...

They Got The Point & there was little substantive critique of the book- b/c they couldn't be "expert" on the 15 of its 16 chapters Instead they found/created alleged deficiencies in the one chapter covering ground they consider themselves The Expert on so they could show everyone what They Knew

but I've found out that authors pull the literary version of that move on the regular I don't respect it

I wrote a 5000 word piece on Makaya McCraven a few months ago I make records that utilize software (Ableton Live) & studio technology in combination w live musicians. Bringing that up, comparing my music to his, or critiquing his music in terms of mine in an article about HIM would've been ludicrous

those people are looking for a crack, something to critique in other words they are reading in bad faith to put it in BK terms- they are haters I'm finding that vocalized hating is a lot more prevalent in the book world than the music world I guess b/c most authors can't fight or shoot ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

and then there are those who have a (literary) territory to defend they may be plowing the same literary ground as me, they may see themselves as doing so, or they may wish they were

people who get the book for free, otoh. I Parse b/c they fall into a couple different catergories Some are reading the book in good faith b/c they are genuinely interested it. Other have a job - they may not be actually interested in reading what I wrote - but are interested in keeping their byline.

people who critique my book after buying it have earned my respect & people who (heaven forbid lol) decide not to buy the book after picking it up and doing a quick read-through are engaging in what I consider "good faith critique" I will Never Be Mad at those people

I assume that people who BUY my book are like me - they're going to read some part/parts of it - enough to give the flavor of the book - first. The main question every book reader asks themselves is: Is this book worth my time?

I'll say that stating a critique of my book's title is fair IF YOU HONESTLY felt misled. That said, I find the idea that the title means the book should be a history book that prioritzes Black music's interaction w white culture (country music/minstrelsy) INSTEAD of what's actually in it perplexing.

I've been blessed so far in that I've gotten mostly positive reviews in the "legacy media" orgs that have paid attention to my book The one kind of "eh" one didn't bother me b/c they engaged w what I wrote The "review of the book that I didn't write", otoh, got me so heated that I wrote a rebuttal

on that note: I saw Stanley Clarke at The Dakota last night I really enjoyed the show - he had an excellent young band (including Isaiah Collier’s brother on drums) the place was packed but unlike, say , Parliament/ Funkadelic & more like Al’s upcoming tour - the audience was mono-generational