ISSUE celebrates the close of 2016 by welcoming back acclaimed guitarist Marc Ribot, who organized and performed in ISSUE’s first ever concert in 2003. Over three decades and more than 20 solo albums, his music has explored diverse genres including Haitian classical music, free jazz, American roots music, and composition for symphony orchestra.
Join Ribot, drummer Chad Taylor and legendary Albert Ayler alumnus bassist Henry Grimes in harnessing the power of improvisation and the music of Albert Ayler to renew our spirits for a New Year of music, love, rage, and resistance. Grimes, Ribot, and Taylor’s ritual improvisation leads to a midnight rendition of Albert Ayler's powerful masterpiece “Bells” to greet the New Year's arrival. The trio draws on the improvising telepathy developed performing together in the years working together as Spiritual Unity, a quartet with the late great Roy Campbell Jr.
Ribot joins celebrated drummer Billy Martin (of Medeski, Martin and Wood) for an opening set featuring Martin’s new project Veve Mechanique: an infectious mix of electro/acoustic grooves and inspired improvisation.
Marc Ribot's experimental trio with Henry Grimes and Chad Taylor draws on the improvising telepathy developed performing together in the years working together as Spiritual Unity, a quartet that reimagined the works of Albert Ayler, to reach new heights and depths of free/punk/jazz. The trio format allows for greater compositional flexibility and features the great bassist Henry Grimes, who played on many of Albert Ayler's seminal recordings from the 1960s. After Grimes returned to the jazz scene in 2003, Ribot knew that the time had come to realize his long-time dream of forming a collective band to play this music. The trio is rounded out with drummer Chad Taylor, best known for his work with the Chicago Underground.
"A searing venture through the avant garde that leaves room for graceful melody, Ribot's latest pays vivid tribute not just to a classic venue but also to the possibilities of the guitar trio.” — Chris Barton, The Los Angeles Times
"Guitarist Marc Ribot’s fiery power trio adds raw blues and thumping backbeat swing to the expressionism of mid-1960s jazz… Ribot is in blistering form and his stinging attack, polytonal lines and speed-of-light strums are powerfully matched by Chad Taylor’s tight melodic drumming." — Mike Hobart, Financial Times
"One of the most amazing evenings of music I’ve experienced… It’s a power-trio, sheets-of-sound extravaganza. Ribot brings a fire hose of invention, Taylor, a whirlwind of force and Grimes a direct connection to the lineage that ensures the proceedings are correct... Not only does it all work, it’s genius… I guarantee that this album will be on my Top 10 list at the end of the year. It’s that good." — Frank Alkyer, DownBeat
Billy Martin was born in NYC in 1963 to a Radio City Rockette and a concert violinist. At age 17, he devoted himself to music and dove into Manhattan’s thriving, eclectic musical landscape. In the years to follow, he honed his craft everywhere from Broadway orchestra pits to Brazilian nightclubs and burgeoning underground performance spaces. From the roots of the downtown scene he emerged with Medeski Martin and Wood, bridging the harmonic complexity of jazz, the conversational fluency of free improvisation, and the groove and swagger of classic R&B and funk. A series of albums and high-profile collaborations with John Scofield, John Zorn, Iggy Pop, Natalie Merchant, and others, brought the band international acclaim. Martin has relentlessly pursued diverse musical contexts, from free improvisation to chamber compositions to film scores. Much of his work is available via his Amulet Records label, which recently released the Road to Jajouka—a series of collaborations (produced by Martin) between the Master Musicians of Jajouka and such artists as Ornette Coleman, Flea, Marc Ribot, John Zorn, Lee Ranaldo, Bill Laswell, Mickey Hart, MMW and more. Martin is also an accomplished filmmaker and visual artist, whose work has been exhibited in solo and group installations around the world including 2014’s Cartegena de indias Bienal in Colombia and the Drawing Sound series at The Drawing Center in NYC (2015).
