Melvin Gibbs

Melvin Gibbs is an American bass guitarist who has appeared on close to 200 albums in diverse genres of music. Among others, Gibbs is known for working in jazz with drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson and guitarist Sonny Sharrock, and Arto Lindsay. He is a member of the band Harriet Tubman, with whom he was included in the New York Times list of best performances of 2017, and Body Meπa, recognized in Bandcamp Daily's best experimental music of 2024.

Career

Melvin Gibbs was born on May 25, 1958. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Gibbs attended Medgar Evers College He first came to public notice as a member of the group Defunkt, which was a mainstay of the early 1980s downtown New York scene. and with guitarist Sonny Sharrock and saxophonist John Zorn. With Jackson and guitarist Bill Frisell, Gibbs was a member of the group Power Tools. Gibbs co-led the band Eye and I with D.K. Dyson who also co-founded the Black Rock Coalition of which he is an original member.

He was a member of the avant-metal Rollins Band from 1993 to about 1998 and again in 2006 when the group briefly reformed. As a member of the Rollins Band, he performed at Woodstock '94 in 1994 Gibbs has also recorded with hip-hop duo Dead Prez, Brazilian musicians Caetano Veloso Latin jazz musician Eddie Palmieri, Gibbs has produced albums by turntablist DJ Logic and guitarist Arto Lindsay. Gibbs and Lindsay met in 1979 and first collaborated musically in 1984, and Lindsay has referred to Gibbs as his "closest collaborator".

Gibbs formed the Punk-Funk All-Stars with James Blood Ulmer, Defunkt leader Joseph Bowie, Vernon Reid and Ronald Shannon Jackson. In 1998, Gibbs, guitarist Brandon Ross, and drummer J.T. Lewis formed the trio Harriet Tubman.

Ancients Speak, the first album by Melvin Gibbs' Elevated Entity, was released on March 17, 2009, by Livewired Music. In 2009, he joined the group SociaLybrium with Bernie Worrell of Parliament-Funkadelic, DeWayne "Blackbyrd" McKnight, and J.T. Lewis. The group's album For You/For Us/For All was released by Livewired in December 2009.

Gibbs' other projects include Melvin Runs the Hoodoo Down with guitarist Pete Cosey and keyboard player John Medeski; Zig Zag Power Trio with guitarist Vernon Reid and drummer Will Calhoun; and Melvin Gibbs Magnum.

In June 2026 Gibbs released a 304 pages non-fiction book, How Black Music Took Over the World with the publisher Bloomsbury Sigma (ISBN 9781399433280).

Discography

As leader

As co-leader Year Artist Title Label Personnel 1987 Power Tools Strange Meeting Antilles New Directions Gibbs, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Bill Frisell 1998 Harriet Tubman I Am a Man SlaveNo Mo'/Knitting Factory Gibbs, Brandon Ross, J.T. Lewis 2000 Harriet Tubman Prototype Avant Gibbs, Ross, Lewis 2004 Sharp / Gibbs / Carter Raw Meet Intakt Gibbs, Elliott Sharp, Lance Carter 2010 Socialybrium For You – For Us – For All LiveWired Gibbs, Bernie Worrell, DeWayne McKnight, Lewis 2011 Harriet Tubman Ascension Sunnyside Gibbs, Ross, Lewis 2013 Sharp / Gibbs / Niggli Crossing the Waters Intakt Gibbs, Sharp, 2017 Harriet Tubman Araminta Sunnyside Gibbs, Ross, Lewis 2018 Zig Zag Power Trio Woodstock Sessions Woodstock Sessions Gibbs, Vernon Reid, Will Calhoun 2018 Harriet Tubman The Terror End of Beauty Sunnyside Gibbs, Ross, Lewis 2021 Body Meπa The Work Is Slow Hausu Mountain Gibbs, Greg Fox, Sasha Frere-Jones, Grey Mcmurray 2024 Body Meπa Prayer in Dub

With Sonny Sharrock 1987: Seize the Rainbow (Enemy) 1989: Live in New York (Enemy) 1996: Into Another Light

With Moreno Veloso 2001: Music Typewriter 2014: Coisa Boa

With Vitamin C 1999: Vitamin C 2000: More

With John Zorn 1986: The Big Gundown (Elektra) 1988: Spillane

With others 1982: Sueño, Eddie Palmieri 1989: Come Together as One, Will Downing 1989: Unh!, Philip Tabane 1990: Metamorphosis, World Saxophone Quartet 1990: Rootless Cosmopolitans, Marc Ribot 1991: Circulado, Caetano Veloso 1991: Lust, Ambitious Lovers 1995: Very Neon Pet, Peter Scherer 1997: Terra Incognita, Chris Whitley 1998: Black Music, Chocolate Genius 1999: Mustango, Jean-Louis Murat 1999: Pasajes de un Sueno, Ana Torroja 1999: Return of Kill Dog E, Scotty Hard 2000 Let's Get Free, Dead Prez 2000: Menace to Sobriety, OPM 2003: The Rites with Burnt Sugar (Greg Tate), Butch Morris, Pete Cosey (Avant Groidd Musica) 2003: Deeper Than Oceans, Kazufumi Miyazawa 2004: Ten, Ellery Eskelin 2010: Christian Marclay: Graffiti Composition with Elliott Sharp, Mary Halvorson, Lee Ranaldo, Vernon Reid 2010: Electric Willie: a Tribute to Willie Dixon with Elliott Sharp, Henry Kaiser, , Queen Esther, Glenn Phillips, Lance Carter (Yellowbird) 2010: The Art of Bellydance, Bellydance Superstars 2020: Marching Music, Dave Douglas (Greenleaf)