Melvin Gibbs

Gibbs worked across jazz musician, record producer, composer, bassist and musician. The registers place that work in jazz fusion. This article rests on 41 catalogued compositions, 1 published texts, 5 issued recordings, 1 digitised documents and 3 scholarly references drawn from named institutional registers. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.

• Name — Melvin Gibbs • Genre — Jazz fusion, alternative metal, funk rock, ambient, hip hop • Education — Medgar Evers College; Brooklyn Conservatory of Music • Occupation — Musician, composer, producer • Origin — Brooklyn, New York, U.S. • Instrument — Bass guitar • Years Active — 1980–present • Label — Livewired Music, Rage • Current Member Of — Harriet Tubman • Past Member Of — Rollins Band, Defunkt, Eye and I, Black Rock Coalition • Website — https: melvin-gibbs.bandcamp.com

• Illustration — Gibbs in a July 1980 performance in Paris, France Melvin Gibbs was born on May 25, 1958. 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).

• Year — Artist — Title — Label • 2009 — Melvin Gibbs' Elevated Entity — Ancients Speak — LiveWired • 2011 — Melvin Gibbs — Phree-dem downloads • 2021 — Melvin Gibbs — 4 + 1 equals 5 for May 25 • 2022 — Melvin Gibbs — Anamibia Sessions Vol. 1: The Wave — Editions Mego • 2025 — Melvin Gibbs — Amasia: Anamibia Sessions 2 — Hausu Mountain

• 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, Lucas Niggli • 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 — Hausu Mountain — Gibbs, Fox, Frere-Jones, Mcmurray

• 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)

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, Eric Mingus, Queen Esther, Glenn Phillips, Lance Carter (Yellowbird) • 2010: The Art of Bellydance, Bellydance Superstars • 2020: Marching Music, Dave Douglas (Greenleaf)

Melvin Gibbs is recorded with the occupation record producer. Recorded with the occupation jazz musician. Classed in the genre jazz fusion. Recorded as record producer, composer, bassist and musician.