Cheap Marc Ribot: Scelsi Morning (Music) (Marc Ribot, Anthony Coleman, Christine Bard, Jill Jaffe, Ned Rothenberg, Chris Wood, Roberto Rodriguez, Ted Reichman, Eddy Sperry, Rob Thomas) Price

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Customer Reviews of Marc Ribot: Scelsi Morning

In the mid-80's, Ribot found himself in demand as THE avant garde guitarist for personalities like Tom Waits, Elvis Costello and the Lounge Lizards. Currently, just about any John Zorn gig needing a guitar features Ribot. In between, Ribot founded Shrek, a powerful unit that transposed the energy of Albert Ayler's 1960's free-jazz maelstrom into a rock guitar context. After signing with Atlantic Records for a few albums to explore his more accessible Los Cubano's Postizos band, it seemed as though Ribot had abandoned Shrek's primal sound. Apparently not; if anything, this album is a throwback of sorts.

Opening with blistering guitar work and settling into a familiar tribal pattern of ritualistic percussion, Scelsi Morning takes the listener back to Ribot's Shrek days with a vengeance. Further tracks reveal a compositional maturity un-hinted at in those halcyon days. Clarinets play interweaving harmonies, organs bubble and drone while Ribot coaxes out ethereal as well as discordant shards from his guitar. Although having been conceived as music to accompany dance, these pieces more than stand on their own.

superb
with "scelsi morning", marc ribot has created an unclassifiable masterpiece. as evocative as any soundtrack, it throws the listener into a distinctly hostile environment with the suggestion that any comfort derived must be reconciled with the discomfiting consiousness of that hostility. an existential dilemma which ribot translates into a powerful musical duality. its apotheosis is "geese", where an appropiately dispassionate bass clarinet is a continual source of activity alongside the elegiac stasis provided by violin, accordion and overdubbed clarinet. the two sit comfortably juxtaposed for the 12 minute duration. it is an uncomfortable, absurdist ideal espoused by ribot, the best-case scenario of active routine co-existing with melancholic recognition of the same. a soundtrack for camus' sisyphus.

and yet, in the context of this extended piece, it is an optimistic conclusion. gone is the anger of the opening "bataille" with its ritual percussion and bass patterns forming the battleground for the attack of ribot's distorted guitar and rothenberg's querulously pitched bass clarinet. anthony coleman's pump organ may have an occasional calming effect but there is an inexorable relentlessness to this composition that is in keeping with its title. "bataille's" musical landscape of expressive improvisation, ritual minimalism and a sense of discontinuity that often resolves to a single consoling note are important features of ribot's conception and recur throughout the album. the minimalist aspect of this conception takes centre stage in the second track, "scelsi morning", as a sense of grief takes over and culminates in a wonderfully counterpointed elegy for jill jaffe's violin and rothenberg's clarinet. yet a misplaced ritualism remains implicit with ribot's disconcertingly strummed unplugged electric guitar. it all climaxes in the short epiphany of alienation that is "and then she fell" where ribot demonstrates his excellence in the use of extended guitar sounds and technology that too often can sound gimmicky in the hands of others.

after this, the fourth and fifth tracks pose a similar juxtaposition to the opening duo. "earth" is all threatening ritual industrialism while "pennies from hell" is a queasy descending melodic line for guitar and clarinet set to minimalist piano and bass accompaniment. yet it is never as disconsolately mournful as was "scelsi morning"; instead it seems to take shostakovich's scherzos as a point of departure (e.g. piano quintet, violin concerto) where a mordant wit is as adept at simultaneously expressing grief and a sense of alienation.

of course, it must be stressed that ribot's music sounds nothing like shostakovich and, for all the minimalist references, it doesn't much sound like reich or part or their extended brotherhood. for one, ribot's use of minimalism is almost post-modern in its emphasis of routine rather than any sense of questing after an ineffable musical purity. this routine element pervades the aforementioned "geese", now heard as a hymn of acceptance and newly realized equanimity.

"geese" is the conclusion to what can be considered the first of two extended works on the cd, both of which were originally were written for dance pieces. if that sounds unlikely for the first piece ("in as much as life is borrowed"), than the second piece seems slightly less hostile, though it is debatable whether the original dancers would agree. "reverse psychology" opens with the fragmented rhythmic activity of "our daily bread" with its shards of aggressive guitar, percussion and sampler. an unsettling passage for solo percussion (sounding like a muted xylophone) recurs twice and there is an overall feeling of messiaen at his most burlesque arriving in the 21st century. "identity i-shmentity" returns to an elegiac minimalism but this too is rudely interrupted by a short section of jewish folk dance. the effect is to lessen the previously predominant serious tone . that said, it would be a mistake to view "reverse psychology" as the happy side of the resigned absurdity of "in as much as life is borrowed". once again the extramusical reference point must be shostakovich; this music will happily pull all sorts of faces but the impact is ultimately serious and unsettling. the quietly croaking trombone in "the youth pattern begins again" is suggestive of this as is the accordion drone which is in counterpoint with the surrounding activity. when the piece ends with the muted dance of "kabukitsch", there is the disconcerting thought that this piece is the darker of the two. in the end, the paradoxical energy required for equanimity, thomas mann's "positive triumph", has given way and in its place is a peevish little dance of despair destined for repetition ad nauseum. it would be depressing if it wasn't so much fun. kitsch indeed.

i realize i've concentrated a bit too much on the extra-musical impact of this recording. truly, ribot's "scelsi morning" can be enjoyed purely as music and new music at that. it sounds like nothing but itself which will remain its primary appeal ahead of any speculation regarding conceptions and evocations. that it comments so piquantly on the surrounding world allies it with much else that is great in art. perhaps that should be its only classification.

Brilliantly mixes Nu Jazz, Downtown, Noir, & White Noise
Most definitely not for everyone, Scelsi Morning presents some of the most interesting and challenging music being performed and recorded today.

Originally composed for two different dance pieces, the music resonates with other performance-oriented music, such as soundtrack recordings, having suite-like sensibilities and a vingnette-like feel. Dedicated to Giancento Scelsi, a modern Italian composer, who also creates uniquely atmospheric soundscapes, this discs stands out by virtue of its drama, menace, and beauty.

What I especially like about Scelsi Morning is its gloriously varied and unusual sound palette. Ribot not only employs a wide variety of instruments, he places them in unique settings. Thus you get Ned Rothenberg making his bass clarinet sound like a didjeridu and honking goose on "Geese," backed by intriguing string and pump organ voicings interspersed with mesmerizing fugue-like passages. Much of it is very atmospheric, like a soundtrack to a noirish sci-fi movie (check out esp. "Our Daily Bread," with its blasts of fuzz guitar, Chinese-water-torture percussion, and very in-your-face violin playing). I especially like the faux-anthemic, Chinese-tinged "The Youth Brigade Triumphs Again (and Again)." All in all, garage-soundtrack-Nu Jazz might best describe what's going on here.

As I say, not for everyone, but highly recommended for those with big ears and not afraid to encounter a truly different music experience.