September, 04, 2017
During his 33-year career as a musician, Gerry Gibbs has recorded 11 solo CDs as a leader and he’s had amazing success, placing his last four albums at the top of the jazz charts.
Gerry Gibbs & Thrasher People will perform tonight at AHA’s Centre Street Sessions Season Finale. Performances are scheduled for 5:30 and 7:15 p.m. at 23 Centre Street, in the parking lot of the historic Kaller Beef Building. The performance “will not only demonstrate what all the fuss is about, and it will for a brief moment, turn New Bedford into a smoking hot jazz club, thanks to the larger-than-life jazz label Whaling City Sound, their inimitable artist Gerry Gibbs, and his terrific ensemble known as Thrasher People,” the release states.
Each member of this trio is a virtuoso on many instruments: Alex Collins, 30, is an extraordinary talent who plays acoustic piano, Fender Rhodes and organ, as well as adding unique vocals as a fourth instrument on select songs. Hans Glawischnig is the acoustic and electric bass wizard. At times he plays the electric bass like a guitar, using a pick and guitar amplifier. With Gibbs doing most of the “thrashing” as leader, composer, arranger and drummer, he is also a gifted multi-instrumentalist, supplying Mini Moog, vibes, marimba, percussion, electronic programming, kalimba and quica, while adding a choir of voices and beat-boxing.
Gibbs’ latest album, “Weather or Not,” is a double-disc set, split down the middle. The first disc is a tribute to the music of fusion super group Weather Report. The second disc is subtitled “The Life Suite: 1981-2016″ featuring selected songs that Gibbs chose from music he composed from his 11th grade year in high school to the present — an eclectic array of Gibbs’ originals all played in trio format.