Melvin Gibbs

• Active: '80s, '90s, 2000s
• Genres: Jazz
• Instrument: Bass Representative Album: "Ancients Speak"

Biography

Bassist Melvin Gibbs has played with some of the greats of '80s and '90s jazz and rock. A graduate of Boston's Berklee College of Music, Gibbs spent part of the '80s as a member of the Power Tools trio with Bill Frisell (and later, Pete Cosey) and Ronald Shannon Jackson, and performing with Joseph Bowie's jazz funk band, Defunkt. Later that decade, Gibbs played in legendary jazz/rock guitarist Sonny Sharrock's band. By the time he joined the Rollins Band in 1993, Gibbs had also played in a trio with Arto Lindsay and Dougie Bowne, and in the group Eye & I. With Rollins, Gibbs toured again through Europe, and the West coast. Gibbs became a producer for Rage records after leaving the Rollins Band. By the close of the '90s, he was active in the experimental rock band Harriet Tubman, who had a 1998 release on Knitting Factory records, had performed or recorded with Elliot Sharp, Ikue Mori, Chocolate Genius, and the Brazilian singer* Marisa Monte. ~ Joslyn Layne, All Music Guide

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