Source: Bandcamp Daily.
To create a genre, you need musicians, and one of the foundational downtown musicians is bassist Melvin Gibbs, once called “the greatest bassist in the world” by Time Out New York. If you want to understand downtown as a genre, Gibbs’s career as a bandleader and member of other groups provides a near-comprehensive guide to its fundamental elements. The Brooklyn native has made music playing and/or producing with Sonny Sharrock, John Zorn, DJ Logic, Marc Ribot, Marisa Monte, Eddie Palmieri, David Byrne, Femi Kuti, Pete Cosey, Burnt Sugar the Arkestra, and many, many more. He was an original member of the Black Rock Coalition (founded by Greg Tate, Vernon Reid, and Konda Mason), was a member of the Rollins Band and Defunkt, and was one-third of short-lived but highly influential band Power Tools with guitarist Bill Frisell and drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson.
