Melvin Gibbs

Melvin Gibbs is the bassist for the avant-rock/jazz/metal/dub trio Harriet Tubman, whose new album The Terror End of Beauty is out now and sweeping up rave reviews everywhere. Before forming Tubman with guitarist Brandon Ross and drummer JT Lewis in 1998, Gibbs was a founding member of Defunkt and of Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society (alongside future Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid); he played in Sonny Sharrock's band; he appeared on John Zorn's Spillane and The Big Gundown; he was a member of Arto Lindsay's band Ambitious Lovers; and from 1994 to 1998, he was the bassist for the Rollins Band.

In this episode of the Burning Ambulance podcast, Gibbs talks about his time with Jackson, with Rollins, and with Harriet Tubman; about whether his music is jazz, and how one even defines such a thing; and much, much more. This is the standard, free version of this episode, and runs 64 minutes. There is an extended, 92-minute version of the podcast available exclusively to Patreon subscribers; join at patreon.com/burningambulance for $5 a month to hear it. Future episodes of the podcast will be similarly expanded, and additional subscriber-only stories will also show up from time to time.