Marc Ribot is always pigeon-holed in the jazz category simply because it’s too hard to figure out where he falls idiomatically (I’m as guilty as anyone for calling him a jazz artist). However, Hurry Red Telephone (PI Recordings) is this guitarist and composer’s first all-instrumental record since Live At The Village Vanguard (2014) and more than any records he’s put out since then, Telephone could broadly be called a jazz excursion. But Ribot doesn’t forsake who he is to make it that way. That means there’s a rough edge and he’s just as apt to tap into experimental rock, blues, folk and world music forms as he does into bop and late-period Coltrane. Nonetheless, the spirit of jazz pervades.
It pervades across a set of recordings that is diverse on many levels. That’s probably bound to happen when Ribot liberally changes his lineup from track to track, sticking only with Chad Taylor (drums, percussion) throughout all six songs.
“New Monster” is actually a suite; in the first part, the guitar fuzz tone mingling with the Lewis’ sax and David Watsons’ bagpipes throws off a Celtic/Carnatic vibe, but Taylor’s rhythm refuses to settle. Taylor signals a changeup to a backbeat for the second section and Lewis leads the band in a jazzier direction. After a percussion interlude, the song lunges into raga mode, which suits the bagpipes just well, and then cuts over back to the prior section, showcasing a little bit of Ribot’s and Lewis’ nastier licks.
Briggan Krauss brings his alto sax to the droning, rumbling “Faucets of Terrible” that’s built on a foundation of a Ribot ostinato and Taylor’s world fusion drums. The busy thrumming of Hilliard Green‘s bass for “Gnat” sets a fast swing into motion, one that tenor saxophonist Brian Settles undertakes with authority, energetically walking the line between hard bop and free jazz. Ribot takes over and gets wiggier over time, Settles rejoining to underscore his nuttiest licks before they converge on the head at outro.
“Ghost of Sleeping” quickly takes the temperature down with a ballad that makes a nod toward Ribot’s Spanish side, his fragile electric guitar playing in almost a flamenco style. Krauss plays to that mood as Ribot’s softly sad lines opens up into full-on weeping. “Nan Guinan” is an Albert Ayler-type free flowing, outpouring of spirit that tests the outer limits of the melody but Ribot and Krauss stay true to it even as they whip up chaos.
With its muscular Afro-Caribbean rhythms and festive vibe, “Rara” features Ribot and Lewis doubling up on the joyful lead lines. This and “Nan Guinean” were composed by the notable Haitian-American guitarist and early Ribot mentor Frantz Casseus, whose music Ribot had long championed (and for good reason).
Marc Ribot has long ago accomplished the difficult feat of being both easily identifiable and virtually unclassifiable. Making an ostensibly jazz record like Hurry Red Telephone has only made him even more so on both counts.
Hurry Red Telephone is out today. Order it from Bandcamp.
- Marc Ribot – ‘Hurry Red Telephone’ (2026) - October 30, 2026
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- The Orchestral Side of Satoko Fujii: Something Else! Interview, Part 2 of 2 - October 23, 2026
