An absorbing performance from guitarist Marc Ribot at Café Oto, London — review

Marc Ribot’s singular approach to guitar compresses swathes of Americana into a full spectrum of jazz and stirs in a hefty dash of punk attitude. Reflecting a sideman career ranging from Wilson Pickett to Marianne Faithfull and John Zorn, it was Ribot’s grasp of American roots music that made Tom Waits’s 1985 album Rain Dogs stand out.

Ribot played acoustic guitar at this solo gig and, even though he is a master of electronica and feedback whine, there was not a pedal in sight. The energy, though, remained undimmed, as did the sense of “whatever next?” Ribot opened with covers of free-jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler and ended the evening half-singing WH Auden’s poem “Lullaby” to immaculate guitar support.

The performance began with two quiet strums, a moment’s pause, and the distinctive whine of bottleneck blues guitar. Blurred fingers pushed vibrato to extremes, a ghost of rhythmic bass strode purposefully underneath and Ribot, absorbed in making music, had absorbed his audience as well. As the piece progressed, the 12-bar form was set aside and keys and tempos changed seemingly on the spur. Ayler was the inspirational source — quotes from his “Witches and Devils”, “Bells” and more were sprinkled around. Ayler has long been in Ribot’s repertoire — he released a full-on metallic album of covers in 2005 — but rarely played as quietly or intimately as this.

Ribot added gravelly vocals on the country blues that followed: “You can’t escape the Hell-bound fire” captured the gist. Then two pieces written by the Haitian-American composer Frantz Casseus swam in optimism and were played relatively straight. Casseus, Ribot’s early-years guitar teacher, died in 1993, and in tribute Ribot recorded Casseus’s complete works for solo guitar the same year. The upbeat vibe was maintained with the sweet melody and bouncy rhythm of “Flicker”, a Ribot original, followed by a pause for wild cheering and a brief explanatory chat.

The set continued with sharp twists and turns, strong moods and bursts of abstraction, all held together by Ribot’s iron will. The manic picking of a traditional air — sample verse: “We beg forgiveness for our sins and now we go away” — was followed by a “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” laden with tonal variations and Monk-like rhythmic shifts. Ribot then added passable musicianly vocals. Setting a 1990s Empire State Building guidebook to music was funny and pointed in turn. His melodramatic ode to the Brooklyn Bridge was short, and “Short Song” shorter still. Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Sometime Jailhouse Blues”, given poignant accompaniment, ended the set.

The encore conjoined a country-blues cover of Louis Armstrong’s “West End Blues” with late-period John Coltrane and signed off Auden’s poem with a perfectly placed cadence.

★★★★☆

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