Jason Gibbs

Jason Gibbs (1960) is a musicologist, composer and bassoonist.

He was born in Tennessee, studied at William & Mary and at the University of Pittsburgh, and lives in San Francisco. He has visited Vietnam at least nine times, starting in 1993, and has written extensively and expertly about Vietnamese music. One of his compositions for voice and piano, "Tổng biệt" (2000), uses text by poet Tản Đà. He also wrote about Tản Đà in "Tan Da: Vietnam's First Modern Poet."

Linh Dinh started this entry.

Jason Gibbs' Essays on Vietnamese Music

• "The Music of the State: Vietnam’s Quest for a National Anthem," in Journal of Vietnamese Studies (August, 2007). Translated into Vietnamese as "Quốc nhạc Việt Nam: Hành trình tìm kiếm bản quốc ca" by Nguyễn Trương Quý.
• "How Does Hanoi Rock? The Way to Rock and Roll in Vietnam," delivered at a symposium sponsored by the Society for Ethnomusicology, Honolulu, Hawaii. Translated into Vietnamese as Hà Nội “rock” như thế nào? Lối vào Rock’n’Roll ở Việt Nam by Nguyễn Trương Quý.
• "The Music of the Republic of Vietnam - Before and After the Diaspora," delivered at the Pacific Basin Institute on November 2, 2006.
• "Tran Tien: Vietnam's Troubadour of Perestroika," [Delivered at 2006 Meetings of the Popular Culture Association, Atlanta, GA, April 13, 2006]. Translated into Vietnamese as "Trần Tiến: Người hát rong của thời Đổi mới," talawas June 3, 2006 by Nguyễn Trương Quý.
• "Vietnam," "Ha Nôi," "Hô Chi Minh," and "Vietnam Diaspora," in Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Volume V, Asia and Oceania. Edited by John Shepherd, David Horn and David Laing. New York: Continuum, 2005; pp. 221-232.
• An Unforgotten Song: Representations of the American War in Vietnamese Song after 1975," [Delivered at Thirty Years After: Literature and Film of the Vietnam War, University of Hawaii, November 9, 2005]. Translated into Vietnamese as "Những biểu tượng của cuộc chiến tranh chống Mỹ trong ca khúc Việt Nam sau 1975," talawas February 21, 2006 by Nguyễn Trương Quý.
• "Yellow Music Turning Golden," [Delivered at the meetings of the Popular Culture Association, San Diego, CA, March 2005]. Translated into Vietnamese as "Nhạc vàng "hóa vàng"," talawas June 26, 2005 by Nguyễn Trương Quý.
• "Tradition and Continuities in Vietnamese Social Music Making," talawas ̣(August 30, 2004). [originally delivered at the Symposium of the International Musicological Society (SIMS), Melbourne, Australia, July 2004]. Translated into Vietnamese as "Truyền thống và sự tiếp biến trong hình thành âm nhạc xã hội Việt Nam" by Nguyen Trương Quý and Hà Vũ Trọng.
• "The West's Songs, Our Songs: The Introduction of Western Popular Song in Vietnam before 1940," Asian Music vol. 35, no. 1 (Fall/Winter 2003-2004), 57-83. [originally delivered at the 1997 meetings of the International Association for Research in Popular Music, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania]. Translated into Vietnamese as "Bài Tây, bài ta: Khúc dạo đầu và chuyển thể của ca khúc phổ thông Tây phương ở Việt Nam trước 1940" talawas March 29, 2006, by Nguyễn Trương Quý
• "Love and Longing at the Border: Songs on Both Sides of the 17th parallel," [delivered at the 2004 meetings of the Popular Culture Association, San Antonio, Texas]. Translated into Vietnamese as "Tình yêu và khát vọng nơi ranh giới: những ca khúc ở hai bờ vĩ tuyến 17" talawas (April 30, 2005) by Nguyễn Trương Quý.
• "Rumba on the Mekong: Bolero as a Vietnamese Popular Song Form," delivered at the 2003 meetings of the International Association for Research in Popular Music, United States Chapter, University of California, Los Angeles. Translated into Vietnamese as Điệu Rumba trên dòng Cửu Long: Bolero - một dạng ca khúc phổ thông Việt Nam," talawas (September 25, 2005) by Nguyễn Trương Quý
• Review of Songs of the Caged, Songs of the Free: Music and the Vietnamese Refugee Experience by Adelaida Reyes in Asian Music vol. 34, no. 2 (Spring/Summer 2003), 121-125.
• "Anh Ngoc: Discovering a song" - "Anh Ngọc giúp ta phát hiện những sầu lặng nối mọi bài hát," translated by Thanh Trang, Báo Người Việt (February 2003).
• "Hành trình Phạm Duy qua dòng lịch sử," on Phạm Duy, translated by Ngoc, Văn no. 69 (September 2002), 61-69.
• "Love's Memory in Song," Vietnam Cultural Window no. 47 (February 2002), 8-9.
• "Giai điệu của thi ca: Tiếng Việt và âm nhạc," Văn hóa Nghệ thuật #199 (1/2001), 83-88
• "Spoken Theater, La Scene Tonkinoise, and the First Modern Vietnamese Songs," Asian Music 31/2 (Spring/Summer 2000), 1-34. Translated into Vietnamese as "Kịch nói, La Scène Tonkinoise (Hội kịch Bắc kỳ), và những bài hát tân nhạc Việt Nam đầu tiên" talawas (February 10, 2005) by Nguyễn Trương Quý.
• "Music and Nationhood in Pre- and Post-Colonial Vietnam," delivered at the 2000 meetings of the Society for Ethnomusicology, Northern California Chapter, University of California, Berkeley.
• Review of Dance of Life: Popular Music and Politics in Southeast Asia by Craig A. Lockard in Notes (September 1999), 168-170.
• "Nhac Tien Chien: The Origins of Vietnamese Popular Song," Destination Vietnam online (June/July 1998). [originally delivered at the 1996 meetings of the Society for Ethnomusicology, Northern California Chapter, Davis, California]. Translated into Vietnamese as "Nhạc tiền chiến: khởi đầu của ca khúc phổ thông Việt Nam" talawas March 9, 2006, by Nguyễn Trương Quý.
• "Reform and Tradition in Early Vietnamese Popular Song," Nhac Viet 6 (Fall 1997), 5-35. Reprinted in Destination Vietnam Online (October/November 1998). [originally delivered at the 1996 meetings of the Society for Ethnomusicology, Toronto, Ontario, Canada]. Translated into Vietnamese as "Cải cách và truyền thống trong ca khúc phổ thông Việt Nam thời kỳ đầu" talawas March 1, 2006, by Nguyễn Trương Quý.
• "Popular Song in the Republic of Vietnam (1954-1975)," delivered at the 1997 meetings of the Music Library Association, New Orleans, Louisiana.
• "A Musical Instrument Workshop in Hanoi," Experimental Musical Instruments (September 1996), 14-16.

Jason Gibbs online

• His personal webpage
• "Jason Gibbs--không thể bỏ nghiên cứu âm nhạc Việt Nam" by Q.T.
• "Chàng rể Mỹ yêu nhạc Việt" by Hồ Thi Ca
• "Nhà âm nhạc học Jason Gibbs và chuyến đi thăm Việt Nam lần thứ 9," a feature on Voice of America
• "Không thể đơn thuần quay lại quá khứ" by Lê Quỳnh, on BBC Vietnamese
• "Jason Gibbs gắn bó với âm nhạc Việt" by Mai Thế Phú