Bass Legend Melvin Gibbs Shows Us 'How Black Music Took Over the World'

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KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 17 April 2026

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Grammy-nominated bassist and composer Melvin Gibbs contends that all music genres popular in the U.S. — pop, country, rock, dance, hip-hop and Latin — “either are, or are based on, or created using, forms of Black music.” In his new book “How Black Music Took Over the World,” Gibbs set out to trace the “rhythmic genealogy” of music from Africa through the Americas. And he unpacks why traditional Western notations and interpretations of music — even when well-intended — misunderstand the sense of time and kinesthetics fundamental to truly understanding how Black music works. Gibbs joins us with his bass to demonstrate the long reach of the African diaspora, and to ask who gets the credit for the music the whole world loves. Guests: Melvin Gibbs, Grammy-nominated composer and musician; author, “How Black Music Took Over The World” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:58.4	Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal.
1:01.6	Melvin Gibbs begins his new book, How Black Music Took Over the World with a scene in Brazil,
1:07.1	drumming with one of the crews that parade through the streets during Carnival.
1:16.6	This communal complex celebration is a fitting start to a book that is both richly theoretical, filled with musicology and philosophy, as well as an ode to the way music lives in our bodies.
1:23.6	Gibbs' parents met at the South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind, but he grew up in the segregated New York City of the 60s and 70s.
1:32.3	He took up the bass and has spent 40 years composing a life in music, playing with all kinds of musicians and bands while thinking about black music as a response by the people of the African diaspora to their lives.
1:46.9	One key tenet of his philosophy is that many Western musicians and scholars, even the ones who love black musical traditions,
1:53.5	have seen the musical innovations of jazz or funk or hip-hop as exciting disturbances to the supposed natural order of music.
2:01.6	Gibbs argues, however, that black music must be understood on its own terms, in its own frames,
2:06.6	and with respect for its own rhythms. And then its logic, heritage, and coherence become clear.
2:13.6	Melvin Gibbs joins us here this morning. Welcome, Melvin. Thanks so much.
2:18.3	Thank you so much for having me, Alexis.
	...

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