In Concert: Mark Ribot Quartet featuring Mary Halvorson

JGT contributor Joe Barth attends a performance by Mark Ribot and Mary Halvorson and provides some commentary on their modern Free-Jazz approach.

On a quiet September Tuesday night in Kirkland, Washington (ten miles east of Seattle), the Kirkland Performance Center stage was set on “musical fire” as guitarist Mark Ribot and his quartet took the stage.  In addition to Mary Halvorson also on guitar, the quartet featured bassist Hillard Greene and drummer Chad Taylor.

Mark Ribot, who was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1954, is known for playing many styles, avant-garde, no-wave, free jazz, rock, and Cuban music.  His early work was as a session guitarist, working with the likes of John Zorn, Jack McDuff, Elvis Costello to Elton John.  The person next to me last night spoke of how much he enjoyed Mark’s extensive work with singer Tom Waits.

Mary Halvorson was born in Boston in 1980 and started playing guitar at age twelve.  She moved to New York in 2002 and has been very forward-thinking in her approach to music. Mary is one of New York’s most in-demand guitarists.

Tuesday night in Kirkland, Mark, Mary, and their quartet were “true to form” with their sizzling, forward-thinking music.  For this tour, Mark had composed several compositions for the quartet.  These compositions were weaved together in almost a forty-minute medley before a break in the songs. Though the musical atmosphere was very free and improvisatory, the music was well-rehearsed and very tight when it needed to be. There was great variety in the intensity and musical textures, with moments of hard, almost rock-driven power chords and soloing to soft, intimate more melodic atmospheres.  After the band’s introductions, they broke into a sweltering blues.  The intensity and fire of the music are hard to describe, so to get a better idea of what it sounded like the links below have the same musicians (except a different bassist) performing in another setting…

At one point near the program’s close, Mark pulled out a poem where he sang the lyrics in an improvised melody as the band played this blistering accompaniment. After ninety minutes, bringing the band back for an encore, the audience left the auditorium invigorated, challenged, and also very musically satisfied.

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