Marc Ribot
Saints
It’s practically impossible to discuss solo
guitar records (especially improvisation-
based records) without mention of Marc
Ribot. Ribot has gained widespread
notoriety primarily because of his long
relationship with Tom Waits, but among
jazz and improvised music enthusiasts he is
a living legend known for his idiosyncratic
style, distinctly punk rock approach to jazz,
and his fiery, captivating live performances.
He is especially revered for his solo work,
which is almost too intense to fathom
within a live setting. Few solo performers
can command the complete attention of an
audience with the ease of Ribot. Thus far in
his long career he has released six records
of solo guitar material, pulling from a wide
variety of sources, including the occasional
standard, the work of John Zorn, and
even a series of deliberately frustrating,
twisted guitar etudes he composed entitled
Exercises in Futility. His best loved solo
album, however, is probably Saints, a 2001
release that includes interpretations and
rearrangements of a broad range of tunes,
including the Beatles’ “Happiness Is a
Warm Gun,” several traditional folk blues
numbers, a John Zorn composition, and
two Albert Ayler songs, which bookend the
album and lend it its title track. Throughout
Saints Ribot keeps the focus on melody and
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unbridled intensity, radically reimagining
the material without abandoning its soul.
His guitar sound has never been more raw,
bloody, clanky, and magical, with some
of the tracks having a kind of lo-fi, old
record ambience that suits the material
perfectly. One can easily imagine that the
whole album was recorded in a crumbling,
haunted mansion or an abandoned rail car.
Saints really takes the listener on a journey,
one that only Marc Ribot could guide. It is
essential listening.
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