Songs of Resistance

(resistance music)

2024: Marc Ribot: Songs of Resistance (feat. Shahzad Ismaily)
“We are soldiers/in the army/we have to fight/we also have to cry'', says one of the Civil Rights lyrics (performed by vocalist Fay Victor on the Ribot-directed, multi-artist album "Songs Of Resistance” [2018, Anti-]). We also have to...laugh, rant, party...and improvise. 

Songs of Resistance in duo (Marc Ribot, joined by multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily) use radical rearrangements of some of the material from the 2018 Anti- release as a jumping off point plus new material, improvisation and…whatever else reaps urgency. 

Songs of Resistance Duo are in it for the long haul…not “protest song” per se…but an approach to the history of resistance songs that resists the cliched dysfunction of our present, and performs the freedom we demand from the future. 

From 2018:
“Every movement which has ever won anything has had songs,” says accomplished New York City guitarist, Marc Ribot. "The songs in this collection are what I wish I’d been able to hear or sing at the demostrations and benefits I’ve attended since Donald Trump’s election. Through them, I've tried to channel some of the deep rivers of song from movements past into something that may be useful now. A few tunes are arrangements of US Civil Rights (We Are Soldiers In The Army, We'll Never Turn Back) and WWII European resistance songs (Bella Ciao, Fischia Il Vento). One is a Mexican romantic pop ballad originally written as a political attack (Rata de dos Patas). Others are my own tunes based on or inspired by these."

A studio album released September 14, 2018 on ANTI- Records, Ribot set out to assemble a set of songs that spoke to this political moment with appropriate ambition, passion, and fury. The eleven songs on the record features a wide range of guest vocalists, including Tom Waits, Steve Earle, Meshell Ndegeocello, Justin Vivian Bond, Fay Victor, Sam Amidon, and Ohene Cornelius, Tift Merritt, Domenica Fossati and Syd Straw.

"At a time of such overwhelming social turmoil, finding a focus for this kind of project is challenging. Nevertheless, Ribot’s purpose remained clear. “There’s a lot of contradiction in doing any kind of political music,” he says, “how to act against something without becoming it, without resembling what you detest. Sometimes it is hard to figure out what to do, and I imagine we’ll make mistakes, and hopefully, learn from them. But I knew this from the moment Donald Trump was elected: I’m not going to play downtown scene Furtwangler to any orange-comb-over dictator wannabe. No way.”

"Marc Ribot comes from many worlds, from no wave music to Latino music to the New York improv scene to the avant-garde. But his performance this year was a spirit of Americana that was singular at the festival...One of the great highlights of the year, not just this Festival." - Ann Powers, Best of AmericanaFest program for NPR's All Songs Considered

"Unlike any album Marc Ribot has ever done...One of the most explosive concerts I saw [this year]..." -Bob Boilen NPR's All Songs Considered The Year in Music 2018 

"Virtuoso guitarist, versatile multi-project artist and folk-punk activist Marc Ribot returns to us with Songs of Resistance. From partisan songs of World War II and US civl rights movement, to love songs to musical resistance from the peerless Albert Ayler and John Coltrane repertoire—and a few originals, of course—this extraordinarily unique artist delivers a concert true to his persona: free-spirited and committed."
- Montreal Jazz Festival 2018

Live Performance Reviews:

• NPR's All Songs Considered: Best of AmericanaFest 

• No Depression: 6 Most Memorable Moments of AmericanaFest

• Variety: Kamasi Washington, Ry Cooder, Marc Ribot Bring the Heat to Montreal Jazz Festival

Album Reviews:

• NPR's All Songs Considered: 2018 The Year in Music

• NPR Beta (Radio): Marc Ribot Looks at the Past for Answers to the Present

• The Daily Beast: Marc Ribot Leads a Musical Army Protesting Against Trump

• Rolling Stone: Song You Need to Know: Marc Ribot Feat Tom Waits, 'Bella Ciao'

• Pitchfork: Video Premiere-Tom Waits Frist New Song in 2 Years is a Marc Ribot Collaboration

• Rolling Stone: Marc Ribot, Steve Earle Protest Trump on New Song 'Srinivas'

• No Depression: Notable Roots Music Releases

Performance History:

September 6 - 16, 2019
06.09.2019 DORTMUND/Germany Domicil
07.09.2019 St. ANDRÄ/Austria Rathaussaal St. Andrä - Lavantiade Festival
09.09.2019 MÜNCHEN/Germany Unterfahrt Jazzclub
11.09.2019 HALL/Austria Kulturlabor Stromboli
12.09.2019 SALZBURG/Austria JAZZIT:MUSIK:CLUB:SALZBURG (Jazz im Theater)
13.09.2019 BERGEN/Norway Sardinen USF
14.09.2019 FIRENZE/Italy Firenze Jazz Festival -Fringe
15.09.2019 ROMA/Italy Auditorium Parco della Musica
16.09.2019 PADOVA/Italia Sala dei Giganti Universita di Padova

August 1 - August 3, 2019
8/1 Jazz em Agosto - Lisbon, Portugal
8/3 SuperUho Festival - Marina Lucica - Primosten, Croatia 

October 8th, 2018
Le Poisson Rouge - NYC
Songs of Resistance (Record Release!)
w/ guests Justin Vivian Bond, Ohene Cornelius, Domenica Fossati, Fay Victor

September 25th, 2018
National Jazz Museum in Harlem - NYC
Jazz and Social Justic Session 5: Marc Ribot Songs of Resistance. Short salon set followed by discussion moderated by journalist Larry Blumenfeld 

September 14th, 2018
Americana Music Festival - Nashville, TN
High Watt at 11:59pm: Songs of Resistance (Showcase & Record Release

August 24, 2018
Saalfelden Jazz Festival - Austria
Marc Ribot: Songs of Resistance (w/ Nasheet Waits, Jay Rodriguez, Nick Dunston)

June 30, 2018
Montreal Jazz Festival - Canada
Marc Ribot: Songs of Resistance (w/Brad Jones, Jay Rodriguez, Reinaldo deJesus)