Lost String Theory: Marc Ribot 65

We'll slip this one in this afternoon, because this is a big time player and I've been looking for an excuse to share this wicked show for a while.

Today's extra-talented New Jersey native has been in more bands and been a part of more recording projects than just about anyone you could name over these last few decades or so.

I first heard of him in the 1990s, as part of several John Zorn projects. How I have never done John Zorn on here is just a mystery for the ages, but there it is.

Anyway he (our birthday guy, not John Zorn... he's a Virgo) is 65 today, born in 1954 and all as he was.

How do you celebrate the birthday of a player as unusual as Marc Ribot? He claims his music is so individuated because although he's left-handed, he learned his instrument right-handed as a kid... left-to-right players -- like Jimi Hendrix, Robert Fripp, and Duane Allman, for instance -- are somewhat rare.

Anyway to celebrate, I have this utterly trance-inducing 75 minutes of mayhem, recorded about five years ago with an all-star cast.

This was one of the concerts behind the Master Musicians of Jajouka tribute record, The Road to Jajouka, and features the mighty Bachir Attar leading the MMoJ alongside a slew of badass Westerners, including 2/3 of Medeski, Martin and Wood and today's hero, who sprays incendiary guitar all over the set with almost no break.

The Master Musicians of Jajouka + Billy Martin, Marc Ribot & friends

45 Deutsches Jazzfestival

HR Sendesaal

Frankfurt, Germany 

10.25.2014

01 intro by Bachir Attar & Billy Martin

02 Unidentified Improvisation I

03 Unidentified Improvisation II

04 announcement by Bachir Attar

05 Unidentified Improvisation III

06 Unidentified Improvisation IV

07 Unidentified Improvisation V

Total time: 1:15:07

Bachir Attar  - ghaita, lira, gimbre & percussion 

Mustapha Attar - ghaita, lira, gimbre & percussion  

Mohamed El Attar - ghaita, lira, gimbre & percussion  

Abdellah Bokhzar  - ghaita, lira, gimbre & percussion

John Medeski - organ & keyboards

Marc Ribot - guitar

Shahzad Ismaily  - bass & electronics

Billy Martin - drums 

DJ Logic - turntables 

Falu - vocals 

digital capture of an HR2 digital FM rebroadcast

400 MB FLAC/May 2019 archive link

I shall return towards the month's end with some high voltage Punk Rawk and rebel music, because we don't get into enough of that shit here in Jazz Snob City.

Today, however, it's time for yall's morning to become eclectic with this soaring hour and fifteen of battering-ram trance music, courtesy of the birthday boy Mr. Ribot and his many compadres-in-sound!--J.