Marc Ribot

{{short description|American guitarist and composer (born 1954)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2025}} {{Infobox musical artist  | name = Marc Ribot | image = muy_divertido.jpg | image_size = | landscape = | caption = Ribot performing in 2007 | background = non_vocal_instrumentalist | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1954|5|21}} | birth_place = Newark, New Jersey, United States | genre = Experimental, alternative, avant garde, electronic, hardcore punk, no wave, classical, free jazz | occupation = Musician | instrument = Guitar | years_active = 1970s–present | label = Antilles, Avant, DIW, Atlantic, Tzadik, Pi, Anti-, Northern Spy | associated_acts = Lounge Lizards, Shrek, Los Cubanos Postizos, Bar Kokhba Sextet, Electric Masada, Jazz Passengers, Young Philadelphians, John Zorn, Tom Waits, Youn Sun Nah | website = {{URL|www.marcribot.com}} }}

'''Marc Ribot''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|r|iː|b|oʊ}};<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.marcribot.com/bio |title=Marc Ribot biography |publisher=Marc Ribot Homepage |access-date=2008-09-22 }}</ref> born May 21, 1954) is an American guitarist and composer.

His work has touched on many styles, including no wave, free jazz, rock, and Cuban music. Ribot is also known for collaborating with other musicians, most notably Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Vinicio Capossela and John Zorn.

==Biography== Marc Ribot, who is of Jewish heritage,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.full-stop.net/2021/08/09/reviews/cam-lind/unstrung-rants-and-stories-of-a-noise-guitarist-marc-ribot/ | title=Unstrung: Rants and Stories of a Noise Guitarist – Marc Ribot }}</ref> was born in Newark, New Jersey. He grew up in the Montrose section of South Orange, New Jersey.

He has worked extensively as a session guitarist. He has performed and recorded with Tom Waits, Caetano Veloso, John Zorn, David Sylvian, Jack McDuff, Wilson Pickett, Arto Lindsay, T Bone Burnett, Medeski, Martin and Wood, Cibo Matto, Sam Phillips, Elvis Costello, Tift Merritt, Allen Ginsberg, Foetus, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Susana Baca, The Black Keys, Vinicio Capossela, Alain Bashung, McCoy Tyner, Elton John, Trey Anastasio, Jon Fishman, John Medeski, Oteil Burbridge, Madeleine Peyroux, Marianne Faithfull, Diana Krall, Natalia Lafourcade<ref>{{Citation |title=Natalia Lafourcade - De Todas Las Flores |date=2023-05-26 |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/27202401-Natalia-Lafourcade-De-Todas-Las-Flores |access-date=2026-02-12 |language=en}}</ref>, Mike Patton, Stormin’ Norman and Suzy Williams, Neko Case, Joe Henry, Allen Toussaint, Robert Quine, Ikue Mori,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ikuemori.com/discograph.html|title=Discograph|website=Ikuemori.com|access-date=June 3, 2018}}</ref> and others. Ribot was a member of The Lounge Lizards for several years in the late 1980s. Band leader John Lurie later wrote: "Marc is a musical genius. So many ideas are coming out of that guy that it is actually often a problem."<ref>John Lurie (2021). The History of Bones, Random House</ref>

Ribot's earliest work as a session musician was featured on Tom Waits's ''Rain Dogs'' (1985) and helped define Waits's new musical direction.<ref>Ruhlman, W. [{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r21380|pure_url=yes}} All Music Review of ''Rain Dogs''] accessed September 3, 2008.</ref> Ribot worked with Waits on many of his following albums including ''Franks Wild Years'' (1987), ''Big Time'' (1988), ''Mule Variations'' (1999), ''Real Gone'' (2004), ''Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards'' (2006) and ''Bad as Me'' (2011). He has appeared on Elvis Costello's ''Spike'' (1989), ''Mighty Like a Rose'' (1991), and ''Kojak Variety'' (1995). Ribot has appeared on numerous recordings by John Zorn, including many of Zorn's ''Filmworks'' recordings, solo performances on Zorn's ''Masada Guitars'' (also featuring Bill Frisell and Tim Sparks), and is a member of Zorn's Bar Kokhba Sextet and Electric Masada.

Ribot's first two albums featured the Rootless Cosmopolitans, followed by an album of works by Frantz Casseus for solo guitar. Further releases found him working in a variety of band and solo contexts including two albums with his self-described "dance band", Marc Ribot y Los Cubanos Postizos<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.allaboutjazz.com/a-fireside-chat-with-marc-ribot-marc-ribot-by-aaj-staff|title=A Fireside Chat with Marc Ribot|first=All About|last=Jazz|website=All About Jazz|date=February 21, 2004 |access-date=June 3, 2018}}</ref> (Prosthetic Cubans), featuring compositions by Arsenio Rodríguez.

Ribot admitted to ''Guitar Player'' a relatively limited technical facility due to learning to play right-handed despite being left-handed: "That's a real limit, one that caused me a lot of grief when I was working with Jack McDuff and realising I wasn't following in George Benson's footsteps. I couldn't be a straight-ahead jazz contender if you held a gun to my head."<ref>''Guitar Player'', June 1997</ref>

He currently performs and records with his groups Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog with bassist Shahzad Ismaily and drummer Ches Smith of the avant-garde band Secret Chiefs 3,<ref>{{cite web | title = Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog Party Intellectuals | author = Ted Drozdowski | url = http://thephoenix.com/Boston/Music/63648-MARK-RIBOTS-CERAMIC-DOG-PARTY-INTELLECTUALS/ | publisher = The Boston Phoenix | date = June 25, 2008 | access-date = 2008-07-15}}</ref> Marc Ribot Trio with bassist Henry Grimes and drummer Chad Taylor of Chicago Underground, Marc Ribot y Los Cubanos Postizos with Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez on drums and original members pianist Anthony Coleman, bassist Brad Jones and percussionist EJ Rodriquez,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Marc Ribot y Los Cubanos Postizos|url=https://www.marcribot.com/marc-ribot-y-los-cubanos-postizos|access-date=2021-05-28|website=marc ribot|language=en-US}}</ref> and The Young Philadelphians, covering 1970s Philadelphia soul music with Philadelphia-based musicians bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma and drummer G. Calvin Weston with guitarist Mary Halvorson plus a three-piece string section.

A biographical documentary film about Ribot was made, called ''The Lost String''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lahuit.com/store/uk/show/32|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130127100233/http://www.lahuit.com/store/uk/show/32|url-status=dead|title=Marc Ribot. The Lost String|date=January 27, 2013|archive-date=January 27, 2013|website=Archive.today|access-date=June 3, 2018}}</ref>

Ribot was also a judge for the sixth annual Independent Music Awards.<ref>[http://www.independentmusicawards.com/ima_new/imajudges2007.asp Independent Music Awards – 6th Annual Judges] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091005194007/http://www.independentmusicawards.com/ima_new/imajudges2007.asp |date=October 5, 2009 }}</ref>

==Discography== thumb|220px|right|Marc Ribot in Saalfelden, Austria 2010 {{main|Marc Ribot discography}} * ''Rootless Cosmopolitans'' (Antilles, 1990) * ''Requiem for What's His Name'' (Les Disques du Crépuscule, 1992) * ''Marc Ribot Plays Solo Guitar Works of Frantz Casseus'' (Les Disques du Crépuscule, 1993) * ''Shrek'' (Avant, 1994) * ''Subsonic 1: Sounds of a Distant Episode'' with Shrek (Sub Rosa/Subsonic 1994, split album with Fred Frith) * ''The Book of Heads'' (Tzadik, 1995) composed by John Zorn * ''Don't Blame Me'' (DIW, 1995) * ''Surrender to the Air (1996)'' * ''Shoe String Symphonettes'' (Tzadik, 1997) * ''The Prosthetic Cubans'' (Atlantic, 1998) with Los Cubanos Postizos * ''Yo! I Killed Your God'' (Tzadik, 1999) * ''¡Muy Divertido!'' (Atlantic, 2000) with Los Cubanos Postizos * ''Saints'' (Atlantic, 2001) * ''Inasmuch as Life is Borrowed'' (Ultima Vez, 2001) limited edition * ''Scelsi Morning'' (Tzadik, 2003) * ''Soundtracks Volume 2'' (Tzadik, 2003) * ''Spiritual Unity'' (Pi, 2005) * ''Exercises in Futility'' (Tzadik, 2008) * ''Party Intellectuals'' (Pi, 2008) with Ceramic Dog * ''Silent Movies'' (Pi, 2010) * ''Your Turn'' (Northern Spy, 2013) with Ceramic Dog * ''Live at the Village Vanguard'' (Pi, 2014) with Henry Grimes and Chad Taylor * ''The Young Philadelphians: Live in Tokyo'' (Yellowbird, 2016) with the Young Philadelphians * ''YRU Still Here?'' (Northern Spy, 2018) with Ceramic Dog * ''Songs of Resistance: 1942–2018'' (Anti-, 2018) * ''What I Did On My Long Vacation'' (Northern Spy (exclusively on Bandcamp), 2020) with Ceramic Dog * ''Hope'' (Northern Spy / Yellowbird / P-Vine, 2021) with Ceramic Dog * ''Connection'' (Knockwurst, 2023) with Ceramic Dog * ''Map Of A Blue City'' (New West Records 2025)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Marc Ribot – Map Of A Blue City |url=https://www.pabsttheatergroup.com/events/detail/marc-ribot-2025 |access-date=2025-05-23 |website=pabsttheatergroup.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Marc Ribot – Map Of A Blue City |url=https://www.discogs.com/de/release/34001796-Marc-Ribot-Map-Of-A-Blue-City |access-date=2025-05-23 |website=Discogs}}</ref>

==Filmography==

* ''The Tune'' (1992) * ''Sabbath in Paradise'' (1998) * ''The Soul of a Man'' <small>(directed by Wim Wenders)</small> (2003) * ''A Bookshelf on Top of the Sky: 12 Stories About John Zorn'' (2004) * ''The Lost String'' <small>(directed by Anais Prosaic)</small> (2007) * ''Gare du Nord'' (2013) * ''In the Land of Arto'' (2025)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.locarnofestival.ch/festival/program/film.html?fid=04753d81-617b-4b9e-a538-10d868628fd3&l=en&eid= |title= In the Land of Arto|date=8 July 2025|access-date=8 July 2025|website= Locarno Film Festival |language=en}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * [http://www.marcribot.com/ Marc Ribot] official website * {{IMDb name|id=0723023|name=Marc Ribot}} * {{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p7416}} * {{Discogs artist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ribot, Marc}} Category:Northern Spy Records artists Category:1954 births Category:Living people Category:Musicians from Newark, New Jersey Category:20th-century American guitarists Category:21st-century American guitarists Category:American experimental guitarists Category:American male guitarists Category:American jazz guitarists Category:American rock guitarists Category:Pi Recordings artists Category:Tzadik Records artists Category:Avant-garde guitarists Category:Avant-garde composers Category:American avant-garde musicians Category:Guitarists from New Jersey Category:20th-century American male musicians Category:21st-century American male musicians Category:American male jazz musicians Category:The Lounge Lizards members Category:The Jazz Passengers members Category:Surrender to the Air members Category:DIW Records artists Category:Antilles Records artists Category:Atlantic Records artists Category:Intakt Records artists Category:Anti- (record label) artists Category:Jewish American musicians Category:21st-century American Jews Category:New West Records artists Category:Winter & Winter Records artists Category:Island Records artists Category:Enja Records artists