Eddie Gibbs is an American jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 banjoist, guitarist, and bassist.

Gibbs began his career late in the 1920s, playing with Wilbur Sweatman

Wilbur Sweatman

Wilbur C. Sweatman was an African-American ragtime and dixieland jazz composer, bandleader, and clarinetist....

, Eubie Blake

Eubie Blake

James Hubert Blake was an American composer, lyricist, and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. In 1921, Blake and long-time collaborator Noble Sissle wrote the Broadway musical Shuffle Along, one of the first Broadway musicals to be written and directed by African Americans...

, and Billy Fowler. As a banjoist he was strongly influenced by Elmer Snowden

Elmer Snowden

Elmer Snowden was a banjo player of the jazz age. He also played guitar and, in the early stages of his career, all the reed instruments. He contributed greatly to jazz in its early days as both a player and a bandleader, and is responsible for launching the careers of many top musicians...

. He played with Edgar Hayes

Edgar Hayes

Edgar Hayes was an American jazz pianist and bandleader.Hayes attended Wilberforce University, where he graduated with a degree in music in the early 1920s. In 1922 he toured with Fess Williams, and formed his own group, the Blue Grass Buddies, in Ohio in 1924...

 from 1937 and played with him on a tour of Europe in 1938. After a short stint with Teddy Wilson

Teddy Wilson

Theodore Shaw "Teddy" Wilson was an American jazz pianist whose sophisticated and elegant style was featured on the records of many of the biggest names in jazz, including Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald.-Biography:Wilson was born in Austin, Texas in...

, Gibbs joined Eddie South

Eddie South

Eddie South was an American jazz violinist.-Biography:South was a classical violin prodigy who switched to jazz because of limited opportunities for African-American musicians, and started his career playing in vaudeville and jazz orchestras with Freddie Keppard, Jimmy Wade, Charles Elgar, and...

's ensemble in 1940, and worked later in the decade with Dave Martin, Luis Russell

Luis Russell

Luis Russell was a jazz pianist and bandleader.Luis Carl Russell was born on Careening Cay, near Bocas del Toro, Panama, in a family of Afro-Caribbean ancestry. His father was a music teacher, and young Luis learned to play violin, guitar, trombone, and piano...

, and Claude Hopkins

Claude Hopkins

Claude Driskett Hopkins was an American jazz stride pianist and bandleader.-Biography:Claude Hopkins was born in Alexandria, Virginia in 1903. Historians differ in respect of the actual date of his birth. His parents were on the faculty of Howard University...

. As a bassist, he led his own trio at the Village Vanguard

Village Vanguard

The Village Vanguard is a jazz club located at in Greenwich Village, New York City. The club was opened on February 22, 1935, by Max Gordon. At first, it also featured other forms of music such as folk music and beat poetry, but it switched to an all-jazz format in 1957.-History:Over 100 jazz...

 and played in a trio with Cedric Wallace

Cedric Wallace

Cedric Wallace was an American jazz double-bassist.Wallace moved to New York City in the 1930s, where he played in a band led by Reggie Johnson at the Saratoga Club. Later in the decade he worked with Jimmie Lunceford before joining Fats Waller's band from 1938-1942, the association for which he...

, but returned to banjo in the 1950s during the Dixieland jazz

Dixieland Jazz

Dixieland Jazz was a Canadian music television series which aired on CBC Television in 1954.-Premise:The series host was Trump Davidson, a cornet player. He also hosted a radio music series on CBC's Trans-Canada Network.-Scheduling:...

 revival. He played with Wilbur de Paris

Wilbur de Paris

Wilbur de Paris was a trombone player and band leader, especially known for mixing New Orleans jazz style with Swing.De Paris was born in Crawfordsville, Indiana, where his father, Sidney G...

 among others during this time.

After studying with Ernest Hill

Ernest Hill

Ernest "Bass" Hill was an American jazz double-bassist.Hill played from 1924 with Claude Hopkins, and remained with him on a tour of Europe with Josephine Baker the following year. Hill and Hopkins collaborated numerous times over the next few years and again in the 1940s...

, Gibbs returned to bass in the middle of the 1950s, but played banjo once again in the 1960s during another surge in interest in the Dixieland groups. He played at the World's Fair

World's Fair

World's fair, World fair, Universal Exposition, and World Expo are various large public exhibitions held in different parts of the world. The first Expo was held in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, United Kingdom, in 1851, under the title "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All...

 in 1965 and in 1969 he played bass (and occasionally banjo) as a member of "Buzzy Drootin

Buzzy Drootin

Benjamin "Buzzy" Drootin was a legendary jazz drummer. He played with some of the greatest leading jazz musicians for over sixty years....

's Jazz Family" which included Herman Autrey

Herman Autrey

Herman Autrey was an American jazz trumpeter.Autrey was born into a musical family, and began on alto horn before taking up trumpet as a teenager and gigging locally in Pittsburgh and Florida. After some time in Florida he worked in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York City, where he...

, Benny Morton

Benny Morton

Benny Morton , born in New York City, was a jazz trombonist most associated with the swing genre. He was praised by fellow trombonist Bill Watrous among others. One of his first jobs was working with Clarence Holiday, and he appeared with Clarence's daughter Billie Holiday towards the end of her...

, Herb Hall

Herb Hall

Herbert "Herb" Hall was an American jazz clarinetist and alto saxophonist.Herb was the brother of Edmond Hall and the son of clarinetist Edward Hall. He began on banjo with the Niles Jazz Band , then settled on reeds. In 1926 he played with Kid Augustin Victor in Baton Rouge, and moved to New...

, Sonny Drootin on piano and Buzzy on drums. He retired from active performance in the 1970s.