Tag Archives: Marc Ribot

Concert Review: Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog barking out a nuclear meltdown alarm – loud and ferocious but tranquil and beautiful at times

Date: May 5, 2013
Venue: Le Poisson Rouge (NY)
Review by Ancelmo James

Last week I headed down to Le Poisson Rouge to see Marc Ribot perform for my first time since 2004, and then, it was with Los Cubanos Postizos. This time it was with Ceramic Dog – Ribot accompanied by Shahzad Ismaily on bass and electronics, and Ches Smith on drums. This particular show was the CD release party of their new album Your Turn (Northern Spy) and was also the band’s first night home from a tour of Japan. A point which Ribot commented on by asserting that they didn’t suffer from jet lag because they spent all of their 7 days in Japan operating “on New York time” a feat which takes a good amount of “well…something” according to Ribot.

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Guest Commentary by Marc Ribot: Piracy, Profit & Music

Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

Today I want to introduce you to  a musician, Marc Ribot, who’s not “just” a musician but also a music activist. For a couple of years he’s been fighting for musician rights, i.e. seeking better pay and conditions for musicians playing at the Winter Jazz Fest 2012. Since coming to NY I’ve been meeting Marc and found out that this gentleman is quite different from other NY musicians I know. So for a while I’ve been trying to find the right entree and timing to feature him as music activist and not as a musician.

Last week by chance I found an article written by Marc in Allegro and a video interview of him at allaboutjazz.com. which made me decide to make this feature.  I’m very sure what he writes in his article and says in the interview might be very interesting and inspiring for musicians and very informative  for music lovers.

As I’ve said and written a couple of times since becoming a music activist myself: to play and compose music is like any other job. We musicians should be paid for our “creative” work in the same way like a medical doctor, lawyer, worker, etc. We can’t play for free all the time. I think the time has come that the public and also people and companies who hire musicians and composers should start to understand that musicians and also composers are “really” workers like them. They need the same kind of respect for their work.

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Concert review: Marc Ribot playing all kinds of sonic possibilities of the electric guitar

Venue: Le Poisson Rouge (NY)
Date: February 16, 2012

Reviewed by Jim Hoey

On stage at a venue like Le Poisson Rouge, Marc Ribot eases into a chair surrounded by his guitars, accouterments and band mates for the night (John Medeski, piano, electric keys, William Parker, bass, and Andrew Cyrille drums). Immediately, upon striking their first notes, they conjure up decades of American Jazz, Blues, and avant-garde sounds, and lead into improvisational territory that would leave many other uninitiated players far behind.
 

Each of these musicians assembled by Ribot for this night are masters at their own instruments, with time under their belts, and experience mixing with other fellow travelers and elders like Cecil Taylor, Rashid Ali, Derek Bailey, Milford Graves, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Caetano Veloso, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, John Zorn, and numerous others. It really can’t be understated, any one of these players could headline their own bill, draw a crowd in their own right, but together they make up a core group with tremendous chemistry, energy, and ability to anticipate what’s going to come next, so much so that the almost sold-out crowd, on this Thursday night, never tired of the spontaneity.

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Music listings – 10/10 through 10/16

1. Shinji Masuko (of DMBQ / Boredoms) w. The Returners+Man Forever

Date: Monday, October 10, 2011
Time: 9pm
Venue: The Knitting Factory (361 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11211, Tel: 347-529-6696)
Ticket: $60-$70
Genre: psychedelic rock

Categories cannot contain Shinji Masuko. He’s the founder of DMBQ – one of Japan’s greatest modern psychedelic bands, a respected music and comic reviewer, an astonishing guitarist and a master guitar builder. He’s also been a member of the Boredoms since 2004, having designed and built their notorious seven neck guitar (the Sevena) while acting as the band’s principle guitarist.

2. Akiko Yano and Marc Ribot

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Two guitarists – Marc Ribot and Nels Cline – two men…at Le Poisson Rouge

Date: June 15, 2011
Venue: Le Poisson Rouge

Concert review by Jim Hoey

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Marc Ribot and Nels Cline paired up for this guitar duo set on the recent anniversary of Le Poisson Rouge (June 15th). For an hour and a half, over the course of 7 morphing, improvisational sound pieces that ranged from country to rock, through psychedelic noise, to jazz and back, the two legends of guitar traded licks, riffs, tones, dissonance, space – and they shared time, all in front of a sold out crowd that likely included musicians, journalists and New Yorkers on the avant-garde scene who remembered the heyday of Tonic and the old Knitting Factory when shows like this were much more common.

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