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Artist
Melvin Gibbs
12+ albums
rockjazzambientinstrumentalcomposer
about
Melvin Gibbs has been called "the best bassist in the world" by Time Out New York magazine. A well-respected veteran of the New York music scene, he has contributed his singular talents to major artists in many diverse genres of music, appearing on close to 200 albums. Born in Brooklyn N.Y. his first musical studies were on the congas and Latin percussion, focused on the Afro-Diasporatic rhythms of Puerto Rico, Cuba and Brazil. He studied with Papo Dadiego, later to become known as the maker of Jopa Percussion instruments, who was his next-door neighbor. After deciding to switch to bass he studied acoustic bass at The Muse is Brooklyn under former John Coltrane bassist Reggie Workman and electric bass privately with Vic Collucci. The first band he joined featured the late Alphonia Tims (Future Funk Now!, ROIR) on guitar, who would later become a formative influence in his musical life. A few months later at a practice room in Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn he would meet another guitarist and kindred spirit, Vernon Reid. He soon joined "Point of View" a jazz-rock fusion band led by Reid as well as continuing to work as bassist-songwriter for a Brooklyn based production company specializing in funk and r&b. He also freelanced extensively on the local N.Y. music scene with an emphasis on gaining as much hands on experience playing as many different types of music as possible. He placed a particular effort into gaining a strong working knowledge of all the musics of the peop
