marcribotsilentmovies

Marc Ribot releasing 'Silent Movies', playing more shows

by Andrew Frisicano

“Saw Marc Ribot, MeShell Nedegocello and Chocolate Genius play together last night @ Rose Live Music. It was amazing and in Williamsburg!” -just_some_pix

Silent Movies…
Marc Ribot

Inventive avant guitarist Marc Ribot will be releasing a new record, Silent Movies, September 28th on Pi Recordings. As its title suggest, the album expands on Ribot’s work scoring film (this year he performed several times with Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid)

The album reflects Ribot’s fascination with movies and contains pieces intended to function as music for films: some are adaptations of music he has actually written for films, others for classic silent movies that he scored for his personal amusement, still others for films of his own imagination. His goal is to explore, as he says “the strange area between language and spatiality that exists partly in between music and visual image, and partly as a common property of both.” Whatever the inspiration, Silent Movies is replete with beautiful melodies and quietly wistful playing of a sort seldom heard from Ribot and delivers a program filled with gentle, haunting songs that evoke the feel of a different time. As he says in the CD’s liner notes, the recording project “did indeed have the feeling of having walked backwards into the beautiful frame of a silent movie.”

Though the album is a solo work, Ribot, a tireless collaborator, is pairing up with new friends for three nights at Rose Live Music on August 18th (yesterday), 19th (tonight) and 22nd. The first two feature bassist/singer Meshell Ndegeocello, guest vocals Chocolate Genius and drummer Deantoni Parks. For the last, Ribot plays with his Ceramic Dog sidemen Shahzad Ismaily and Ches Smith, and writer Ariana Reines. More info on those is at the Rose Live Music site.

Also coming up is a release show for Silent Movies on September 15th at (Le) Poisson Rouge. Tickets are on sale.

All of Marc Ribot’s upcoming tour dates (and the lineups for each) plus a video of Ribot with the Lounge Lizards and John Lurie (whose current “disappearance” got a full write-up in a recenty New Yorker) are below…

Lounge Lizards – Voice Of Chunk

‘Silent Movies’ tracklist
1. Variation 1
2. Delancey Waltz
3. Flicker
4. Empty
5. Natalia in E Major
6. Solaris
7. Requiem for a Revolution
8. Fat Man Blues
9. Bateau
10. Radio
11. Postcard from N.Y.
12. The Kid
13. Sous le Ciel de Paris


‘Silent Movies’ info

Silent Movies, the new release from guitar great Marc Ribot, finds him taking another surprising step in a career filled with unexpected turns. One might expect a program of solo guitar music from Ribot to be filled with bracing atonality or studies in texture. Instead, Silent Movies is filled with performances of gorgeous contemplation that linger on the mind long after they are over. The album reflects Ribot’s fascination with movies and contains pieces intended to function as music for films: some are adaptations of music he has actually written for films, others for classic silent movies that he scored for his personal amusement, still others for films of his own imagination. His goal is to explore, as he says “the strange area between language and spatiality that exists partly in between music and visual image, and partly as a common property of both.”

Performed in complete takes, with only minimal atmospheric overdubs, Silent Movies was partly inspired by his experience preparing for a live accompaniment of the Charlie Chaplin film The Kid at Merkin Concert Hall in January 2010 as part of the New York Guitar Festival. Some tracks were composed for “El General,” Natalia Almada’s documentary film about Plutarco Elías Calles who ruled Mexico with an iron hand from 1924 to1935 and still others for the unreleased movie “Drunk Boat.” All of the compositions were written by Ribot except “Sous le Ciel de Paris,” the title song from the classic French movie by Julien Duvivier that was made a hit by Edith Piaf among many others.

Whatever the inspiration, Silent Movies is replete with beautiful melodies and quietly wistful playing of a sort seldom heard from Ribot. The album is almost a polar opposite of his last release Party Intellectuals (Pi 27) with his band Ceramic Dog, a rock power trio going for it in an all-out sonic assault, and nothing like his last solo recital Exercises in Futility, a study in extended technique for the guitar. Given the luxury of three days in the studio, Ribot delivers a program filled with gentle, haunting songs that evoke the feel of a different time. As he says in the CD’s liner notes, the recording project “did indeed have the feeling of having walked backwards into the beautiful frame of a silent movie.”

Marc Ribot – 2010 Tour Dates
August 19 @ Rose Live Music – Brooklyn, NY
MARC RIBOT & MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO
w/ guest vocals Chocolate Genius & Deantoni Parks on drums
9pm & 10:30pm sets

August 22 @ Rose Live Music – Brooklyn, NY
Marc Ribot, Ariana Reines, Shahzad Ismaily, Ches Smith

August 27 @ Saalfelden Festival – Austria
Solo

August 28 @ Saalfelden Festival – Austria
w/ Jazz Passengers

August 31 @ Jazz a la Villette – Paris
A Night of Improv w/MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO & MARC RIBOT
plus Chocolate Genius, Keefus Ciancia, Deantoni Parks

September 12 @ Guelph Jazz Fest – Ontario, Canada
Marc Ribot Trio w/Henry Grimes and Chad Taylor

September 15 @ Le Poisson Rouge – NYC
Silent Movies CD Release Show!
Marc’s new solo album official release date is 9/28, but advance copies will be available for purchase for this performance.

September 23 @ The Narrows – Fall River, MA
Solo – “Silent Movies” CD Release

September 24 @ An Die Musik – Baltimore, MD
Solo – “Silent Movies” CD Release

September 25 @ The Kessler – Dallas, TX
Live score to Chaplin’s “The Kid” plus “Silent Movies” CD Release

September 26 @ International House – Philadelphia, PA
Live score to Chaplin’s “The Kid” plus “Silent Movies” CD Release

September 28 @ Jazz Standard, NYC
w/ Jazz Passengers

October 01 @ Krannert Art Museum, Urbana IL
Solo – “Silent Movies” CD Release

Nov 4-Nov 17 SunShip European Tour
SunShip (Marc Ribot, Mary Halvorson, Chad Taylor, Jason Ajemian)