Born Michael Clement Irving Gibbs in Southern Rhodesia (Now Zimbabwe). Gibbs moved to the US in 1959 when in his twenties. He studied music initially at the Boston Berklee College of Music before moving to the Boston Conservatory where he worked alongside Aaron Copeland, Lukas Foss, Stan Tracey & David Lindup. As a trombonist he was a member of several jazz big bands of the time including the Graham Collier, Tubby Hayes & John Dankworth orchestras.
He relocated to the UK in 1965 just as British jazz was undergoing a revolutionary change due to the popularity of rock music.
He quickly formed his own big band to facilitate his personal vision of jazz/rock fusion. His role was always principly as arranger and conductor rather than musician. His name and reputation by the time of his first album "Michael Gibbs" in 1970 was such that he was able to call on the services of some of the top musicians in the rock and jazz worlds including Jack Bruce, Chris Spedding members of Soft Machine and many others.
Several albums by his big bands followed. From the late 1970s his work moved into arranging and orchestration where his name appears on albums by many top artists including Peter Gabriel, Stanley Clarke, Elton John, Whitney Houston & even Uriah Heep. He relocated to the US where he now lives.
By the 1990s he had moved into film scores where he has written or arranged countless soundtracks.
- Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Bass Guitar – Chris Spedding
- Bass Guitar – Brian Odges, Jack Bruce
- Cello – Alan Ford, Fred Alexander
- Composed By – Michael Gibbs
- Drums – John Marshall, Tony Oxley
- Electric Guitar, Twelve-string Guitar – Ray Russell
- Engineer – Bill Price, Dave Grinsted
- French Horn – Alan Civil, Jim Buck Jr, Nicolas Busch, Valerie Smith
- Keyboards [Assorted] – Mick Pyne, Bob Cornford
- Percussion – Frank Ricotti
- Producer – Peter Eden
- Reeds – Alan Skidmore, Barbara Thompson, Duncan Lamont, John Surman, Mike Osborne, Ray Warleigh, Tony Roberts
- Trombone – Bobby Lambe, Chris Pyne, Cliff Hardie, David Horler
- Trombone [Bass] – Ken Goldy, Maurice Gee, Ray Premru
- Trumpet [Piccolo] – John Wilbraham
- Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Derek Watkins, Henry Lowther, Ian Hammer, Kenny Wheeler, Maurice Miller, Nigel Carter
- Tuba – Dick Hart, Martin Fry
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