Marc Ribot: vocals and guitar
Six years after the sensational solo guitar performance that closed our XXXI Season, this quirky, imaginative, eclectic, highly sought-after, and talented genius of contemporary world music—rightly considered one of the most acclaimed guitarists ever—returns to the FolkClub stage to present his new, stunning musical project. "When it comes to guitarist Marc Ribot, it’s surely more effective to ask what he hasn’t done rather than list what he actually has. Over four decades, Ribot’s career has spanned from classic soul to gnarly blues, explosive no wave to elegant film scores, solo composing roles to supporting work with Tom Waits; this is just a small part of his prolific output... While his soloing range is only slightly less boundless than his entire discography, Marc favors quiet, intricate improvisations around occasionally recognizable standards that rarely sound repetitive compared to their sources. Ribot is a master of time, tone, and taste, with such a vast and varied bank of experience that he can navigate through any song or situation with flair. So consider attending one of his live concerts as witnessing a Lectio Magistralis." (Grayson Haver Currin, indyweek.com)
Marc’s brand-new album, "Map of a Blue City" (released May 2025), is a collection of nine songs, produced and mixed by Ben Greenberg with material gathered over more than 30 years. “It was a long work, with some songs dating back to the ’90s. I just had affection for them, so I never forgot them,” Marc says about these songs. “I wasn’t constantly working on them, but every now and then I made another attempt to finish them.” In 2014 he recorded with his old friend Hal Willner, but the project was shelved and then Hal passed away in 2020. Ultimately, the Willner sessions and Marc’s home demos received a sonic ‘lifting’ from Greenberg. “I didn’t know how I could reconcile the material I recorded with Willner with the home recordings that I felt were the heart of the record,” Marc recalls. “I didn’t know if I could fit everything on the same record, but Ben is an absolute genius. We added some overdubs, but we also removed a lot... Amazingly, it worked!”
Although not strictly a singer-songwriter project, this is Marc’s first album to place his haunting voice at the center. "Map of a Blue City" features songs colliding diverse traditions: roots, bossa nova, no wave, noise, free jazz, and sounds that do not (yet) have genre associations. The project is mostly original compositions, including Ribot’s interpretation of the celebrated Carter Family’s “When the World’s on Fire” and a sort of treated reimagining of Allen Ginsberg’s 1949 poem “Sometime Jailhouse Blues.” "Map of a Blue City" is also a reflection on what it means to be lost: confusion and fear, naturally, but also the excitement sparked by countless unimaginable possibilities. Marc’s personal history is a strange map, full of false starts and dead ends; the album bears this weight with extreme grace, incorporating recordings made over half his life and reflecting on the path that led him to this particular moment. “Working on this album for so long, I’ve seen the world change radically and not change at all. Some of today’s themes are the same ones I was thinking about when I started thinking about the album, but others are things I could never have dreamed of back then. But I think that’s why I was so determined to get the right production values. Producing a record is really complicated, but it all boils down to the kind of environment where the listener feels they are. These songs contain hard truths and cold observations. I wanted the environment to be small enough to keep us close, but warm enough to feel like you’re listening to it from a friend.” (Marc Ribot)
Marc Ribot was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1954. As a teenager, he played guitar in various garage bands while studying under his mentor, Haitian classical guitarist and composer Frantz Casseus. After moving to New York in 1978, Ribot was a member of the soul/punk band Realtones and from 1984 to 1989 of John Lurie’s legendary Lounge Lizards. Between 1979 and 1985, Ribot worked as a sideman on tour with Brother Jack McDuff, Wilson Pickett, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas, Chuck Berry, and many others. He played a decisive role in redefining the genre Americans call Americana, thanks to his invaluable guitar work on Tom Waits’ sumptuous "Rain Dogs" in 1985. Since then, Ribot has been in huge demand, with an impressive list of credits on other artists’ albums, including Solomon Burke, John Lurie, Elvis Costello, Marianne Faithfull, Arto Lindsay, Caetano Veloso, Laurie Anderson, David Sylvian, Neko Case, Cibo Matto, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Susana Baca, McCoy Tyner, T-Bone Burnett, The Jazz Passengers, Evan Lurie, Chocolate Genius, Medeski Martin & Wood, James Carter, Vinicio Capossela, Auktyon (Russia), Sierra Maestra (Cuba), Alain Bashung (France), Vinicius Cantuaria, Joe Henry, Marisa Monte, Allen Ginsberg, Madeleine Peyroux, Sam Phillips, Patti Scialfa, and more recently Allen Toussaint, Norah Jones, Akiko Yano, The Black Keys, Jeff Bridges, Jolie Holland, Elton John / Leon Russell, and many others. Ribot frequently collaborates with producer T-Bone Burnett, most recently on Alison Krauss and Robert Plant’s Raising Sand (an album that won 5 Grammy Awards), and regularly works with John Zorn. His solo recordings include "Marc Ribot Plays The Complete Works of Frantz Casseus", the formidable riffs of John Zorn’s "The Book of Heads", "Don’t Blame Me"—described by critics as “an album full of tasty, unlikely games” (Village Voice)—"Saints, Exercises in Futility", and "Silent Movies", released in 2010 and hailed as a ‘masterpiece’ by Village Voice, appearing on multiple “Best of” lists including the Los Angeles Times. He has composed for film scores such as "The Kids Are All Right", "Where the Wild Things Are", "Walk The Line" (Mangold), "Everything is Illuminated", "Gare du Nord" (Simon), Martin Scorsese’s "The Departed", and "Drunkboat" with John Malkovich and John Goodman; as well as documentaries and feature films including PBS’s "Revolucion: Cinco Miradas" and Joe Brewster’s "The Killing Zone". Composer Stewart Wallace wrote a guitar concerto specifically for him. Marc was named curator and musical director for the 2009 Century of Song Festival, part of the Ruhr Triennale in Germany, which sparked new collaborations with Iggy Pop, Marianne Faithfull, David Hidalgo, cajón master Juan Medrano Cotito, Carla Bozulich, and Tine Kindermann. The NY Guitar Festival commissioned him to create a live soundtrack project with solo guitar for Chaplin’s "The Kid". 2014 saw the monumental release of "Marc Ribot Trio Live at the Village Vanguard", documenting the 2012 return of legendary bassist Henry Grimes to the historic venue; the album appeared on various 2014 “Best of” lists including Downbeat Magazine and NPR’s 50 Favorites. 2018 began with the release of not one but two politically charged albums: "YRU Still Here?", the eagerly awaited third album of Ribot’s post-rock/noise trio Ceramic Dog—continuing the experimental no-wave/punk/noise trajectory of "Rootless Cosmopolitans" and "Shrek"—and "Songs of Resistance", featuring outstanding guests such as Tom Waits, Steve Earle, Meshell Ndegeocello, and more; both albums angrily and indignantly address the turbulent times we live in. 2020, 2021, and 2023 saw the releases of "What I Did On My Long Vacation", "Hope", and "Connection" respectively, all with the Ceramic Dog trio. Finally, in 2025 comes the long-awaited album "Map of a Blue City", 30 years in the making. “Ribot plays, as always, in an imaginative way and is the leading figure in what could be his definitive statement as an instrumentalist, composer, and even singer.” (New West Records)
Marc tours frequently with various projects including his trio Ceramic Dog with bassist Shahzad Ismaily and drummer Ches Smith; The Young Philadelphians featuring Jamaaladeen Tacuma and Calvin Weston; and Caged Funk, a funk arrangement project of John Cage’s music. In 2007, the documentary "The Lost String", directed by Anaïs Prosaïc, was dedicated to him, and in 2021 his first book, "Unstrung: Rants and Stories of a Noise Guitarist" (translated into Italian in 2023 by Edizioni SUR as "Nelle mie corde. Storie e sproloqui di un chitarrista noise"), was published. Marc has released over 30 albums under his own name in more than 40 years of career, exploring everything from Albert Ayler’s avant-garde jazz with his group Spiritual Unity to Cuban sounds with Arsenio Rodríguez (including two critically acclaimed CDs as Marc Ribot Y Los Cubanos Postizos).
A true giant!
