Good Vibes: A Life in Jazz

[Lois Gilbert]

Good Vibes: A Life in Jazz -- Review by John Stevenson

At 78, Terry Gibbs (born Julius Gubenko) is arguably one of the last elder statesmen of the jazz vibraphone.

Following in the mould of Lionel Hampton, Gibbs' extroverted stage personality has helped to popularise an instrument that would otherwise
be relegated to little more than a percussive frill. With the rise of musicians such as Milt 'Bags' Jackson and Bobby Hutcherson, the vibes began to be viewed as a more serious vessel for carrying the bebop and hard bop message, as distinct from the instrument's more colourful exponents.

"Good Vibes" is Terry Gibbs's autobiography as told to Cary Ginell: the book is pretty much in 'safe mode', and is therefore unlikely to ruffle half as many feathers as Miles Davis and Quincy Troupe did with their controversial tome.

We learn of Gibbs' upbringing in the New York of the 1930s and 40s and his early musical influences in the large Russian-Jewish family in which he was raised: Gibbs' father Abe was a respected small-time violinist/band-leader while older brother Sol played drums and xylophone. In the early chapters, Gibbs speaks of a boyhood landscape signposted with Bar
Mitzvahs, bulgars and more than a little chutzpah!

The book is not just an important document in musicological terms. It is a wonderful example of the way in which members of another ethnic group creatively appropriate (some might say hijack!) an African-derived aesthetic and musical tradition.

Written in a warm and engaging style, we follow Gibbs as he gets an important break on the Major Bowes radio show, when he is enlisted in the US Army, and is bitten hard by the bebop bug. A little known footnote in jazz lore is the fact that Gibbs introduced a shy pianist,
Alice McLeod (then a member of his band) to an equally reticent saxophonist named John Coltrane. The rest is history.

Gibbs (an accomplished drummer and "two-finger" pianist) also recounts his time in testy Buddy Rich's band, and in Woody Herman's "Second Herd", before achieving great success with his own Dream Band, and garnering favourable plaudits in Hollywood and on national television with personalities such as Regis Philbin and Steve Allen.


Note: Good Vibes: A Life in Jazz
Terry Gibbs with Cary Ginell
(Scarecrow Press Inc. [Studies in Jazz No. 44], 2003)