Sunday 9 June 2024, 7.30pm
Melvin Gibbs is a composer, musician, artist and writer, born, raised, and currently based in Brooklyn, N.Y. He has been called "the greatest bassist in the world" by Time Out New York magazine and is the 2019 winner of JazzTimes Magazine's Critics Poll in the category: Electric Bass.
His wide-ranging musical resume includes membership in the bands Defunkt, The Decoding Society, Power Tools with Bill Frisell & Ronald Shannon Jackson, the alt-rock Rollins Band (where he was nominated for a Grammy), The Zig Zag Power Trio with Vernon Reid and Will Calhoun of the band Living Colour, Socialybrium with Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame inductee Bernie Worrell, and production and performance work with artists including Femi Kuti, Caetano Veloso, dead prez, Eddie Palmieri, David Byrne, Arto Lindsay and Sonny Sharrock to name a few.
He has composed music for films, installations, and performances for visual artists including Matthew Barney, Stan Douglas, and Arthur Jafa.
For 20+ years he has been a member of the band Harriet Tubman, who The New York Times wrote gave one of “The Best Jazz Performances of 2017” and NPR wrote gave “The Best Jazz Performance of 2018”.
His own projects include Elevated Entity, which is a pioneering mix of Yoruba religious music, hip-hop, and jazz, God Particle, a collaboration with theoretical cosmologist and saxophonist Stephon Alexander, the author of “The Jazz Of Physics”.
In 2021 Northern Spy Records released his EP “4 + 1 equals 5 for May 25”, a mediation on the murder of Mr. George Floyd and its’ aftermath, and in 2022 Editions Mego released Anambia Sessions Vol. 1: The Wave, an album of his avant-electronic music. He is currently writing his first book, “The Science Of Black Music”, for Basic Books.
Paul Abbott is a musician and drummer. He plays with real and imaginary drums, synthetic sounds, performance and writing.
Recent and ongoing collaborations include: XT with Seymour Wright; XT+Pat Thomas; XT+Anne Gillis; X Ray Hex Tet; F.R.David, very good* & Rosmarie with Will Holder; film sound for Keira Greene; Rian Treanor Duo; RP Boo Trio with XT; The Creaking Breeze Ensemble with Nathaniel Mackey; yPLO with Micheal Speers and performances with Cara Tolmie.
Paul has performed at venues and festivals internationally. He was a co-founder and co-editor of Cesura//Acceso journal for music, politics and poetics, and SAM resident artist at Cafe OTO 2015. In 2022 he completed a PhD at the University of Edinburgh under the supervision of Florian Hecker and Nikki Moran. He is currently undertaking research at Royal Conservatoire/Academy Fine Arts Antwerp.
Recent releases include: solos Nsular, Ductus; XT+Pat Thomas “Akisakila” / Attitudes of Preparation (Mountains, Oceans, Trees); XT Deorlaf X, Palina’Tufa; Creaking Breeze Ensemble & Nathaniel Mackey Fugitive Equation; F.R.David very good*; RP Boo Trio 31.12.18.
