Beyond the Bassline: confronting misconceptions of the history of Black British music

Challenging the existing narrative

In 2018, Dr Mykaell Riley created an exhibition called Bass Culture looking at the history of reggae in Great Britain, a history which goes back around 75 years. Mykaell says, ‘It became apparent to me that everyone was positioning the history of Black music within the framework of Windrush - when the first large groups of Caribbean people migrated to the UK just after the Second World War. When the truth is, there is evidence of Black musicians here in the Tudor period, 500 years ago.’

Mykaell found evidence of a man called John Blanke who was a trumpeter playing in the courts of King Henry VII and King Henry VIII. He was the first musician of African origin to have a proper recorded history. There is written proof that Blanke asked Henry VIII for a doubling of his salary and received it. Uncovering this story allowed Mykaell to pitch his big idea to the British Library, challenging the existing narrative that Black British music begins at the end of the Second World War.

Exploring regional stories

The British Library and The Black Music Research Unit at the University of Westminster put together a funding bid for the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) in the UK, who had funded Mykaell’s previous exhibition. Although unsuccessful, this work informed the regional contributions that were delivered through the Living Knowledge Network; a UK-wide partnership of national and public libraries coordinated by the British Library.

‘As part of the research into the funding bid, we looked at a Caribbean presence in each of the major port cities in the UK because of their links to colonial slavery history. Each region has its own stories. We wanted to identify those stories and bring the regional narrative into the conversation.’

The British Library is part of the Living Knowledge Network - a UK network of 31 other libraries, all of which took part, staging their own versions of Beyond the Bassline using digitised assets from the main exhibition and displaying them alongside local or regional stories.

Mykaell shares some examples. ‘Take Bristol as an example. Here, you have big-selling artists like Massive Attack, Prodigy and Tricky, but you also have the beginnings of bands like Soul II Soul. And if you go back in time, you have a history of reggae. In Glasgow, we found Coleridge Goode in the late 1930s who became a phenomenal contributor to the story of jazz. In Southampton, we tracked the history of Craig David and found his father was a recognised bass player in Ebony Rockers, a reggae band and was part of the ‘70s Rock Against Racism movement.’

Finding subject specialists and community expertise

As well as identifying the stories, the exhibition team also needed to identify expertise within the sector as Mykaell explains. ‘I had the challenge of profiling community expertise alongside recognised expertise, subject specialists and so forth, and this developed into thinking about how we could create a better process of knowledge exchange with equity. People and departments that didn’t normally work together got involved, which was fantastic. The project became an open sharing space.’

Mykaell continues. ‘A lot of the investigation took place within existing archives, e.g. the British Library, the BBC, and the British Film Institute. They have all been collecting content for decades but if that content has not been profiled as being of sufficient interest, it remains at the bottom of the pile within their collections and is overlooked. This project allowed for funding to support the required research. Researchers were very happy to do this work, they knew the artefacts existed, but they had never had the chance to find and catalogue them.’

All of the physical items identified by the project, as well as new material such as interviews, were recorded and digitised, creating a dynamic cycle of content generation designed for ongoing dissemination. ‘What the project has allowed is a new level of cataloguing around this history that hadn’t previously been done, filling a gap in prior documentation. This is a major outcome for future projects working to expand this historical record.’

Taking stock of significant moments

Mykaell cites meeting Andy Linehan, Curator of Popular Music Collections at the British Library, who sadly died last year, as one of the most significant moments of the exhibition’s journey. ‘To do these types of projects, you have to gain access to the institutions and get past or be accommodated by the gatekeepers,’ says Mykaell. ‘Without Andy saying yes, it wouldn’t have happened.’

Another favourite moment brought Mykaell’s original research and delivery of the exhibition full circle. ‘There was a special moment at one of our live events when a Black African trumpeter in the current King’s Guards played a piece of music that John Blanke would have played for Henry VIII in 1511. There was an image of John Blanke displayed in the background. It was very moving.’

Searching for hidden stories

Mykaell’s advice to other organisations looking to learn from Beyond the Bassline’s experience in sharing Black history is to look for hidden stories. ‘There’s an assumption that regional history is not as important as that of London. I would argue that they are as important, if not more critical, because collectively, the regions represent the accumulative knowledge of the UK. Regionally, some of the most potent stories tend to be overlooked because of the power of London. There is a growing collection of experiences left out of this history that wants to be heard. So, we should look for the local stories from the most overlooked regions because they best represent the overlooked voices.’

Expanding Beyond the Bassline

Beyond the Bassline was a great success - a six-year project that ended up garnering 50,000 visitors, so what happens next?

Mykaell says, ‘We identified that there is an audience and a need for the work we’re doing, and in terms of the regional stories, we barely scratched the surface. So next, we will look at exploring how we develop the regional angles to move the narrative into a wider conversation within academia. We have community expertise, but we need to profile this resource nationally and make it available in research spaces.’

As far as the exhibition itself, talks are underway with partners like the Museum of London and the V+A to pass on the baton, incorporating some of the learning from Beyond the Bassline into their own exhibitions.

Helping Black British music find its home

Mykaell has a specific ask for the cultural sector: ‘Black music is part of British history. To that end, I have started a petition because we need to find a permanent space for the long history of Black British music within one of our galleries, museums, exhibition spaces or other potential stakeholders spaces to support this objective. Black British music has impacted the global music scene and has a global audience - I want to change the narrative, this is much bigger than one institution, it is British culture and British history.’

Sign the petition to preserve and celebrate Black British Music

Find out more

While there may not currently be an online portal to the exhibition’s collections due to a cyber incident that continues to affect the British Library’s services, you can watch recordings of the live events, or immerse yourself by listening to Mykaell on a Black music radio show with Virgin Radio. Mykaell talks to artists who were involved in the exhibition, like Jazzy B, Joan Armatrading, Leona Lewis and Corinne Bailey Rae.

Follow Mykaell and his team’s work at the Black Music Research Unit, and explore Black History on Europeana.eu.