Marc Ribot
Saints
Atlantic
Marc’s third album for Atlantic Records takes a sharp turn away from his recent journeys through the world music sector of sound and leads him back to the sometimes disturbingly beautiful world of avant garde jazz as voiced through a solo guitar. Starting out with a minimal and rhythmic offering, a cover of Albert Ayler’s “Saints,” this CD moves through a variety of covers that are given new voices by Marc’s guitar, transformed into instrumentals of emotion. The old, bluesy, dirt road grittiness of “St. James Infirmary,” the melodic and drifting “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You,” and “Happiness is a Warm Gun,” which is played heartbreakingly beautifully, and even through the lack of words, the notes carry all the meaning and power needed. Beauty and sadness and joy flowing through six strings like a sigh.
