Melvin Gibbs

Melvin Gibbs is a Grammy-nominated composer, musician, and writer born and raised in Brooklyn, NY.  Time Out New York magazine once wrote that he was “the greatest bassist in the world” and Jazz Times rated him No. 1 Electric Bassist in their Critics Poll in 2019. His latest album “Amasia: Anamibia Sessions 2”, released this past October, was recognized as a “Best of 2025” release by The Wire Magazine and The Quietus. Pitchfork Magazine called the record

“a triumph”. They described the album as “a dynamic amalgam of avant-club music, post-vaporware prog, and electrifying prog”, in contrast to his previous record “The Wave: Anamibia Sessions 1”, released in 2022, which they described as “abstract low-end rumblings somewhere between Thomas Koner’s 1990s gong experiments and Sunn O))) at their most subterranean”. Melvin’s first book “How Black Music Took Over The World”, will be published by Basic Books on April 14th 2026.

His diverse musical background includes mentorship by Ornette Coleman and Gil Evans,  stints in Defunkt and the Rollins Band, collaborations in ensembles including Power Tools alongside Bill Frisell and Ronald Shannon Jackson, the cooperative Harriet Tubman and the band Body Meπa, as well as work with Sonny Sharrock, David Byrne, dead prez, Caetano Veloso, Eddie Palmieri  DJ Logic, and Arto Lindsay. Within the last few years, Gibbs has released solo works on Hausu Mountain Records, Editions Mego and Northern Spy Records, performed in collaboration with Wadada Leo Smith, Moor Mother, and Marshall Allen, and maintained an ongoing musical collaboration with theoretical physicist (and “The Jazz of Physics” author) Dr. Stephon Alexander named God Particle.