HUDSON HALL PRESENTS
MARC RIBOT QUARTET
Saturday, February 22, 2025 AT 7PM
Marc Ribot, guitar
Chad Taylor, drums
Sebastian Steinberg, bass
Ava Mendoza, guitar
Program to be announced from the stage
Running time is approximately 90 minutes without intermission
Hudson Hall’s programs are made possible with support from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
ABOUT MARC RIBOT QUARTET
Marc Ribot’s Spiritual Unity worked together for several years in the early 2000s, continuing their Albert Ayler-tinged trajectory as Grimes Taylor Ribot Trio after the death of trumpet player Roy Campbell Jr, and until the great jazz double bassist Henry Grimes’ failing health forced an end to their legendary performances in 2018. “Those gigs with Henry were the best music I’ve ever played on…or heard…” said Mr. Ribot of their last run of Trio gigs. Ribot and drummer Chad Taylor had been looking for a format to continue this work ever since. With “Hurry Red Telephone” (a quote from the Richard Siken poem, “Several Tremendous”), they’ve found it.
“When I first heard Sebastian Steinberg’s bass playing (w/Joe Morris in the 1980’s), I thought: “THAT’s who I’m looking for: a gifted improviser, deep groove player, and totally original,” says Ribot. “We worked together in my band Shrek and other formats from the early 1990’s until Sebastian moved to LA, after forming Soul Coughing, and I’m thrilled to resume our collaboration. Ava Mendoza is the perfect person to round out this quartet—great soloist, sensitive ensemble player: a fearless guitarist/improvisor who knows how to rock the house. We’re ready to take it to the next level.“
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Marc Ribot, who the New York Times describes as “a deceptively articulate artist who uses inarticulateness as an expressive device,” has released 25 albums under his own name over a 40-year career, exploring everything from the pioneering jazz of Albert Ayler to the Cuban son of Arsenio Rodríguez. His solo release, “Silent Movies” (Pi Recording 2010) has been described as a “down-in-mouth near masterpiece” by the Village Voice and has landed on several Best of 2010 lists including the Los Angeles Times and critical praise across the board, and 2014 saw the monumental release: Marc Ribot Trio Live at the Village Vanguard (Pi Recordings), documenting Marc’s first headline and the return of Henry Grimes at the historical venue in 2012. It was included on Best of 2014 lists such as Downbeat Magazine and NPR’s 50 Favorites.
In 2018, Ribot released two politically charged albums: YRU Still Here? (Northern Spy), the long awaited third album from hispost-rock/noise trio Ceramic Dog, and Songs of Resistance 1942-2018 (featuring guest vocalists Tom Waits, Steve Earle, Meshell Ndegeocello and more on Anti-Records). Both albums landed on various Best of 2018 lists including NPR’s All Songs Considered.
A flurry of releases followed in 2021, including Ceramic Dog’s “HOPE”, recorded during the pandemic, plus two reissues on vinyl for the first time: 1993’s long out-of-print Marc Ribot Plays Solo Guitar Works of Frantz Casseus and Silent Movies (2010). Additionally, Marc’s first collection of writings, “Unstrung: Rants & Stories of a Noise Guitarist”, will be published by Akashic Books this August with an audiobook also in the works, and Marc’s original score for limited series documentary, Queen of Meth, will premiere on the Discovery Channel.
Rolling Stone points out that “Guitarist Marc Ribot helped Tom Waits refine a new, weird Americana on 1985’s Rain Dogs, and since then he’s become the go-to guitar guy for all kinds of roots-music adventurers: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Elvis Costello, John Mellencamp.” Additional recording credits include Neko Case, Diana Krall, Elton John/Leon Russell’s The Union, Solomon Burke, John Lurie’s Lounge Lizards, Marianne Faithful, Joe Henry, Allen Toussaint, Medeski Martin & Wood, Caetono Veloso, Susana Baca, Allen Ginsburg, Madeleine Peyroux, Nora Jones, Céu, Akiko Yano, The Black Keys, and many others. Marc works regularly with Grammy® award winning producer TBone Burnett and composer John Zorn. He has also composed and performed on numerous film scores such as Walk The Line, The Kids Are All Right, and Martin Scorcese’s The Departed .
Chad Taylor (drums) is a drummer and academic. Taylor’s contributions to improvised music over the past three decades cannot be overstated. A composer, scholar and educator as well as a capaciously inventive percussionist now living in Philadelphia, Taylor is best known as co-founder of the Chicago Underground Duo with trumpeter Rob Mazurek (and the numerous Underground iterations that have spun off of that original partnership). A professional on the Chicago scene from the age of 16, he became a rhythmic muse for many of the most celebrated artists in improvised music, including Fred Anderson, Pharoah Sanders, Nicole Mitchell, Matana Roberts, Ken Vandermark, Darius Jones, James Brandon Lewis, Jaimie Branch, Derek Bailey, Marc Ribot, and Peter Brötzmann. He’s also led numerous acclaimed ensembles of his own, though never a trio quite like the one documented on his 2020 album The Daily Biological.
Born in 1973 in Tempe, Arizona, Taylor grew up in Chicago and was shaped by the city’s wide open improvisational ethic. He earned a BFA in jazz performance from the New School and an MFA from Rutgers University in jazz research and history. He’s forged deep creative alliances with a dazzling array of artists, including guitarist Jeff Parker, multi-instrumentalist Cooper-Moore, bassist Tom Abbs, saxophonist Avram Fefer, guitarist Marc Ribot, and bassist Eric Revis. His compositions have been featured on dozens of albums.
Sebastian Steinberg (bass) played with Soul Coughing throughout the band’s history from 1992 to 2000, and the 2024/2025 reunion tour. In 2001, Steinberg performed on stage with Neil Finn and Tim Finn, Eddie Vedder, Johnny Marr, Ed O’Brien, Phil Selway and others in a series of concerts recorded on a DVD titled 7 Worlds Collide. He also recorded and performed with guitarist Marc Ribot and appeared on William Shatner’s 2004 album Has Been. Steinberg performed on the Dixie Chicks’ 2006 Accidents and Accusations tour, and toured with k.d. lang during the summer of 2007. Steinberg performed with Vanessa Carlton on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 2007. In 2009, he appeared again with Neil Finn and friends for the second installment of 7 Worlds Collide playing alongside members of Radiohead and Wilco. Steinberg made a brief appearance in the 2009 Adam Sandler film Funny People.
Steinberg works as a session musician, playing electric bass and double bass on numerous albums. He contributed the bass tracks to the 2003 track ‘Frosty the Snowman’ and the 2012 Fiona Apple album, The Idler Wheel…, and he toured with Fiona Apple as part of her backing band in 2012. In 2014, Steinberg also played bass supporting guitar virtuoso and producer Blake Mills, a tour where Fiona Apple made sporadic appearances, to promote Mills’ second full-length album, Heigh Ho. Steinberg has also been a regular performer with the Watkins Family Hour, and the band released their debut album in July 2015. Steinberg has also worked with singer songwriter J.S. Ondara and has toured as a bassist for Iron & Wine. In 2020, he appeared on Fiona Apple’s album Fetch the Bolt Cutters. In 2024, Steinberg toured with Diana Krall and Matt Chamberlain.
In 2024, Steinberg rejoined Soul Coughing for a reunion tour, including an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Ava Mendoza (guitar) is a Brooklyn-based guitarist, singer, songwriter and composer. Born in 1983, she started performing her own music, and as a side-woman and collaborator in many different projects (as soon as she was legally allowed into venues). As a guitarist, Mendoza has received acclaim for her technique and viscerality. Her ongoing work is as leader of art rock band Unnatural Ways, and as a solo performer of her own music and works by contemporary composers. In any context she is committed to bringing expressivity, energy and a wide sonic range to the music. Mendoza has toured throughout the U.S. and Europe and recorded/performed with musicians including Carla Bozulich, Malcolm Mooney (CAN), Steve Shelley, Mike Watt, Adele Bertei, Mick Barr, William Hooker, Nels Cline, Matana Roberts, John Zorn, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Fred Frith, William Parker, Hamid Drake, Object Collection (Travis Just), ROVA, Negativland, the Violent Femmes, and members of Caroliner. She has received composition commissions from film distributor Kino Lorber, new music duo The Living Earth Show, and John Zorn’s Stone Commissioning Series at National Sawdust. Recordings are available on labels Tzadik, Astral Spirits, Weird Forest, Clean Feed, Resipiscent, and New Atlantis.
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ABOUT HUDSON HALL
Hudson Hall (hudsonhall.org) is driven by a civic and social purpose founded in the belief that culture is central to our shared heritage, identity, and future. Its mission is to inspire, promote the arts, and to play a pivotal role in the cultural and economic advancement of the City and the region. Hudson Hall offers a dynamic year-round schedule of music, theater, film, dance, visual arts, literature, workshops for youth and adults, as well as family programs and large-scale events such as the Hudson Jazz Festival. Follow us @hudsonhallny
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