Mike Gibbs, composer, arranger and trombonist, graduate of the Berklee College of Music, Boston, has worked with many music luminaries including Pat Metheny, John McLaughlin, John Scofield, Michael Mantler, Mike Stern, Joni Mitchell, Whitney Houston, Peter Gabriel, Bill Frisell and Richard Galliano. Born September 25th, 1937, in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe) he grew up playing trombone and piano. He was awarded scholarships to attend Lenox School of Jazz in '60, and Tanglewood Summer School in the US, where he studied with Gunther Schuller, George Russell, J.J.Johnson, Lukas Foss and Iannis Xenakis. He made his recording debut in 1962, as arranger and composer for Gary Burton with Phil Woods, Clark Terry, Tommy Flanagan and Joe Morello.
In 1964 Mike moved to UK, playing trombone for Tubby Hayes, Graham Collier, John Dankworth and Cleo Laine, and in the recording studios. By the late 1960’s he was generally recognised as one of the leading younger composer/arrangers in Jazz and in the early '70's won several Melody Maker Awards, including First Composer, Best Big Band, Musician of the Year, First Arranger and his own album In the Public Interest was voted Best Album of 1974.
He returned to UK in '85, wrote extensively for film and television, and worked with NDR and WDR bands in Germany. In 2004, the Birmingham Conservatoire conferred on him an Honorary Fellowship. October '07, he performed and toured the UK with a large group of his own, which included Bill Frisell, Steve Swallow, Adan Nussbaum and Chris Hunter, to celebrate his 70th birthday. Later in 2008, he took up a one-year part-time professorship at the Hochschule Luzerne.
'Gibbs' music is full of intriguing inner detail that does not deflect from the ultimate destiny of his pieces.' BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
See also Mike's MySpace page.