Marc Ribot
SAINTS
(ATLANTIC)

If you’re going to do a solo album, it helps if you pace it right, and guitarist Ribot paces like a champ. A rendition of Albert Ayler’s " Saints, " which acknowledges the late tenor-saxist’s abiding sadness and trangressive spirit with tart, razor-sharp notes, is followed by John Zorn’s " Book of Heads #1, " which sounds like a blurry Japanese folk thingee and is in turn followed by a fairly straight-ahead version of " I’m Getting Sentimental over You, " with actual sentimentality being staved off by pregnant pauses. These three opening cuts set the agenda for the session, which is a mix of discomforting avant-garde splays of sound and reassuring, if eccentric, visits to the trad well. Ribot’s most imaginative interpretive move is to squeeze some aching sadness out of Lennon’s " Happiness Is a Warm Gun " ; his best homage to the forefathers is a nasty, grooving take of " St. James Infirmary. " He also puts the Bernstein/Sondheim " Somewhere " through a shredder and turns the gospel-based " Holy Holy Holy " into a sonic creep show. In sum: there are enough pleasurable and intriguing moments here to make you overlook the patina of self-indulgence that inevitably hovers over any solo instrumental effort.

Issue Date: October 18 - 25, 2001