Marc Ribot & Rootless Cosmopolitans

• Jazz, Blues, Swing & Chanson

»›Rootless Cosmopolitans‹ was the first record over which I had full control,« says Marc Ribot about the album he released in 1990 as the first under his own name. So, it is also the album that is the entry point into his fascinating work for many of his fans and it enjoys a particularly high profile. With the Rootless Cosmopolitans, Ribot brings together all the different styles and influences he tried and tested separately for years for the culmination of the »Reflektor« Festival dedicated to him and presents an original horror soundtrack in the first part of the concert.

As a result, his own compositions and numerous cover versions, such as the Beatles classic »While My Guitar Gently Weeps«, provide ample room for noise, free improvisation and rock. With bassist Brad Jones, a musician from the original line-up with whom Ribot recorded the »Rootless Cosmopolitans« album and its successor »Requiem For What’s His Name« in 1990 and 1992 is here in the concert at the Elbphilharmonie. The group is completed by the extraordinary drummer Ches Smith, who also plays with Ceramic Dog.

In the first set of the concert, Ribot and pianist Anthony Coleman play their own soundtrack to the film »Shadows choose their horrors«. It is the dark and melodic diary of a necromancer living on the edge between the mortal world and the realm of lost souls. Sinister forces surround Madame G (Winsome Brown) as she tries to bond with her favorite undead. Using magic and ritual to give them new life and pleasures, Madame G is shocked by the devastating outcome. Marc Ribot provides this experimental re-working of the early silent film horror with an equally experimental guitar soundtrack that reinforces the film’s goosebump-inducing atmosphere.

PERFORMERS

Marc Ribot guitar

Ava Mendoza guitar

Anthony Coleman keyboard

Brad Jones bass

Ches Smith drums

Chad Taylor drums

PROGRAM

Set 1: »Shadows Choose Their Horrors« (director: Jennifer Todd Reeves, US 2005) with live music by Marc Ribot and Anthony Coleman

- Interval -

Set 2: »Rootless Cosmopolitans« / »Shrek«