CD Reviews

Marc Ribot

Asmodeus: Book of Angels Volume 7 — Marc Ribot Plays Masada Book Two | Tzadik

By TED DROZDOWSKI | November 27, 2007

4.0 Stars

Downtown Manhattan’s musical mad hatter, John Zorn, has been exploring his Jewish roots through a series of diverse compositions under the umbrella title Masada. The latest recorded batch features guitarist Ribot, who’s now the six-string’s pre-eminent avant-rocker and the king of cutting-edge roots guitar. His most interesting gigs, with T Bone Burnett and Tom Waits, allow him to flex both muscles. This savage, insane blowout pushes Ribot’s creative envelope even harder. He cites Sonny Sharrock, Jimi Hendrix, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, and James Blood Ulmer with criminally bad-ass results, birthing the most daring instrumental guitar-driven rock and jazz album in years, one packed with tones and licks that ricochet from the ’60s to Mars, often in the same four bars. He’s joined by former Ornette Coleman drummer Calvin Weston and Mr. Bungle bassist Trevor Dunn. On “Yezriel,” Ribot’s ax screams over a loping, riveting riff; “Dagiel” howls like a lost dog from Sharrock’s Seize the Rainbow (Enemy). If you know Ribot only through his brilliant sidemanning with Burnett and Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, you don’t really know Ribot.

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