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Melvyn Gibbs

#7
klaus486 said:
Ronald Shannon Jackson. Get Mandance and Barbecue Dog.
Click to expand...

Get anything by RSJ & The Decoding Society, they were one of the most badass bands to come out of the post-Ornette jazz scene. My particular favorite is Eye On You but all of them are good. Note that many feature two electric bassists: Melvin Gibbs and Reverend Bruce Johnson.

Also, Melvin Gibbs plays on the Power Tools debut Strange Meeting (which also features Ronald Shannon Jackson on drums and Bill Frisell on guitar), that may be the single most emotionally visceral beautiful raging mind-blowing jazz album ever recorded. It's my desert island disc, always on my personal top 5 records ever list. Gibbs' playing on it is actually pretty restrained, but their collective vision, energy, and ESP yields some astonishing music. [edit: teleharmonium beat me to it!]

There was a trio of Gibbs with Vernon Reid & Wil Calhoun from Living Color that played around NYC in the 1990s (? I think) as part of the Black Rock Coalition, not sure if they ever recorded...but they did monster in-your-face renditions of old school fusion that would melt the sidewalks across from whatever club they performed in.

And I love his playing with Rollins Band too! If I were in a bar fight I'd want Gibbs and drummer Sim Cain on my team.
 
#8
Hoover said:
Get anything by RSJ & The Decoding Society, they were one of the most badass bands to come out of the post-Ornette jazz scene. My particular favorite is Eye On You but all of them are good. Note that many feature two electric bassists: Melvin Gibbs and Reverend Bruce Johnson.

Also, Melvin Gibbs plays on the Power Tools debut Strange Meeting (which also features Ronald Shannon Jackson on drums and Bill Frisell on guitar), that may be the single most emotionally visceral beautiful raging mind-blowing jazz album ever recorded. It's my desert island disc, always on my personal top 5 records ever list. Gibbs' playing on it is actually pretty restrained, but their collective vision, energy, and ESP yields some astonishing music. [edit: teleharmonium beat me to it!]

There was a trio of Gibbs with Vernon Reid & Wil Calhoun from Living Color that played around NYC in the 1990s (? I think) as part of the Black Rock Coalition, not sure if they ever recorded...but they did monster in-your-face renditions of old school fusion that would melt the sidewalks across from whatever club they performed in.

And I love his playing with Rollins Band too! If I were in a bar fight I'd want Gibbs and drummer Sim Cain on my team.
Click to expand...

Thanks buddy....plenty to chew on right there! I had no idea he is so prolific. Still, Rollins seems an unusual affiliation...
 
#9
If you want some of Melvin's playing along the lines the Rollins Band, check out your used CD shop for a copy of the band Eye & I. It was a band he had with his wife DK Dyson that was pretty heavy rock, I really dug it when it came out.
 

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