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 in rock music with Rollins Band 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.interview of Melvin Gibbs by David Mittleman for his WFMU radio show Observations of Deviance (conducted on September 16, 2025, broadcast on October 11, 2025 and archived on the WFMU website). https://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/157028 A native of Brooklyn, New York, Gibbs attended Medgar Evers College and the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. 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. Throughout the 1980s, he played in drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society, with guitarist Vernon Reid, 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.
Gibbs took on the role of record producer while with the Rollins Band in the 1990s. He worked in that capacity, producing records for other artists on Rage Records.
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 and was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1995. Gibbs has also recorded with hip-hop duo Dead Prez, Brazilian musicians Caetano Veloso and Marisa Monte, Latin jazz musician Eddie Palmieri, Nigerian musician Femi Kuti, and guitarist Marc Ribot. 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; the Geechee Seminoles with percussionist David Pleasant; Zig Zag Power Trio with guitarist Vernon Reid and drummer Will Calhoun; God Particle with cosmologist/saxophonist Stephon Alexander, David Pleasant, and other musicians; 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).How Black Music Took Over the World, bloomsbury.com, retrieved 6. July 2026
Discography
As leader
YearArtistTitleLabel2009Melvin Gibbs' Elevated EntityAncients SpeakLiveWired2011Melvin GibbsPhree-dem downloads2021Melvin Gibbs4 + 1 equals 5 for May 252022Melvin GibbsAnamibia Sessions Vol. 1: The WaveEditions Mego2025Melvin GibbsAmasia: Anamibia Sessions 2Hausu Mountain
As co-leader
YearArtistTitleLabelPersonnel1987Power ToolsStrange MeetingAntilles New DirectionsGibbs, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Bill Frisell1998Harriet TubmanI Am a ManSlaveNo Mo'/Knitting FactoryGibbs, Brandon Ross, J.T. Lewis2000Harriet TubmanPrototypeAvantGibbs, Ross, Lewis2004Sharp / Gibbs / CarterRaw MeetIntaktGibbs, Elliott Sharp, Lance Carter2010SocialybriumFor You – For Us – For AllLiveWiredGibbs, Bernie Worrell, DeWayne McKnight, Lewis2011Harriet TubmanAscensionSunnysideGibbs, Ross, Lewis2013Sharp / Gibbs / NiggliCrossing the WatersIntaktGibbs, Sharp, 2017Harriet TubmanAramintaSunnysideGibbs, Ross, Lewis2018Zig Zag Power TrioWoodstock SessionsWoodstock SessionsGibbs, Vernon Reid, Will Calhoun2018Harriet TubmanThe Terror End of BeautySunnysideGibbs, Ross, Lewis2021Body MeπaThe Work Is SlowHausu MountainGibbs, Greg Fox, Sasha Frere-Jones, Grey Mcmurray2024Body MeπaPrayer in DubHausu MountainGibbs, Fox, Frere-Jones, Mcmurray
Singles
2011: "E-volution" single (rereleased later, Melvin Gibbs via bandcamp) 2011: Lucent Steps: Ascension Remix single (Melvin Gibbs via bandcamp) 2013: "Still Dreamin'" single (rereleased later, Melvin Gibbs via bandcamp) 2020: "Holy Ground: 38th and Chicago – initial thoughts" single (Melvin Gibbs via bandcamp) 2021: "It's Been a Long Time Coming" single (Melvin Gibbs via bandcamp) 2021: FlyBoy's Bardo EZ Pass single (Melvin Gibbs via bandcamp)
As sideman
With Defunkt 1980: Defunkt 1994: Live & Reunified 2005: Defunkt/Thermonuclear Sweat
With Rollins Band 1994: Weight 1997: Come In and Burn
With Jean-Paul Bourelly 1994: Saints & Sinners 1997: Fade to Cacophony: Live 2002: Trance Atlantic
With DJ Logic 1999: Project Logic 2001: The Anomaly 2006: Zen of Logic
With Ronald Shannon Jackson 1980: Eye on You 1981: Nasty 1982: Mandance (Antilles) 1983: Street Priest 1983: Barbeque Dog (Antilles) 1985: Decode Yourself (Island) 1990: Taboo 1999: Live in Montreux 2000: Earned Dreams 2000: Live at Greenwich House
With Arto Lindsay 1995: Aggregates 1-26 1996: Mundo Civilizado 1996: Subtle Body 1998: Noon Chill 1999: Prize 2000: Ecomixes 2002: Invoke 2004: Salt 2014: Encyclopedia of Arto 2017: Cuidado Madame
With Marisa Monte 1991: Mais 1996: Barulhinho Bom (A Great Noise)
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)
References
External links Official website