Melvin Gibbs Curation
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”. He is the 2026 Downbeat Critic’s Poll – winning electric bassist who won the same category in the Jazz Times Critic’s Poll back in 2019. His latest album “Amasia: Anamibia Sessions 2”, was recognized as a “Best of 2025” release by The Wire Magazine and The Quietus. Pitchfork Magazine called the record “a triumph”.
His first book “How Black Music Took Over The World”, was published by Basic Books on April 14th 2026. The New York Times wrote that it is “a revelatory new book”. Similarly, the Wall Street Journal wrote “Mr. Gibbs’s book—equal parts memoir, cultural history and musicology, all tethered to an argument about the nature and power of African-American music—is filled with revelatory moments.”
Gibbs’ book is a sweeping, rigorous account of the musical inheritance of Africa. His writing explores the scientific, musical, religious and social structures central to the development of Black music across the world using an informal, first-person perspective.. He borrows concepts from acoustics to explain how different cultures derive melody from the physics of sound; from geometry to elucidate the Yoruban cellular rhythmic structures that give funk and dance music “their body-moving power”; and from evolutionary biology to account for Black musicians’ drive to solve problems by making do with “whatever is at hand” culturally, technologically, and kinesthetically. Through the lens of Melvin’s lifetime of experience across genres, How Black Music… wrestles the analysis of Black music “out of the straitjacket” of Western-centric musicology to, in his words, “analyze the music on its own terms, using tools I’ve uncovered and methods I’ve either discovered or had passed on to me.”
He has assembled a constellation of collaborators and friends—including Moor Mother, Ben LaMar Gay, Darius Jones, Vernon Reid, Luke Stewart, Chris Ryan Williams, Will Calhoun, Lisa E. Harris, Mankwe Ndosi, Warren “Trae” Crudup III, Paul Wilson Bae, Marvin Sewell, deVon Russel Gray, Tcheser Holmes, choreographer Leslie Parker, and author Shree Renee Thomas—- to explore and respond to the book’s major themes through multiple performances at Big Ears Festival 2027.
Melvin Gibbs’ 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, Socialybrium with Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Bernie Worrell and Parliament/Funkadelic mainstay Dwayne “Blackbyrd McKnight, the Zig Zag Power Trio with Living Colour band members Vernon Reid and Will Calhoun, the cooperative Harriet Tubman and the band Body Meπa, as well as work with Sonny Sharrock, David Byrne, dead prez, Caetano Veloso, Eddie Palmieri, Femi Kuti, Arto Lindsay and many others. He has composed music for films, installations, and performances for visual artists, including Matthew Barney, Stan Douglas, and Arthur Jafa.
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.
