Marc Ribot is so elusive. Just when you think you’ve found a way to define his style he’s slipped through your fingers, moving like quicksilver in the vast realm of improvised music. That said, there is one constant in his guitar playing, both acoustic and electric – and that is intensity. He means every note. Nothing is surface, and if it is, then it is rugged, full of contours and cracks. Anything but smooth – that’s how one might describe his playing. It can sound delicate, sometimes lyrical, but there is always an extra grounding running beneath. If we’re talking poetry, then a poetry of resistance.
Before spending an entire long weekend at the Elbphilharmonie as a »Reflektor« artist in November 2024, he talks about his beginnings as a guitar student with Frantz Casseus and his love of Caribbean music, which almost saw him leave New York and move to Cuba.
Reflektor Marc Ribot :15–17 November 2024
Somewhere between jazz, rock, noise and protest songs, Marc Ribot has evolved into a guitar legend. In his Reflektor Festival, he presents his incredibly diverse band projects over the course of three days.
Marc Ribot will never be mainstream again in this lifetime. His fans love him for that as well. For 40 years now, he has remained dependably at the forefront of the independent scene of creative musicians. Taking to the stage in November 2024 as a guest of the »Elbphilharmonie Reflektor« festival format along with a host of illustrious guests from the New York scene, he is set to present some of his favourite formations right now: the free rock trio Ceramic Dog, his quartet and the Rootless Cosmopolitans, whom he plays film music with. He has even revived his most successful combo from the 1990s, Los Cubanos Postizos, especially for Hamburg.
Ribot will turn 70 in 2024, but there is no sign at all of him slowing down. He may sound almost sedate in conversation, but inside he is still bursting with energy. He tours the clubs and concert halls of the world incessantly with his bands. All of which would be poorer in beauty, attitude – and fun – without him and his inimitable music.
