Originally composed for two different dance pieces, the music resonates with other performance-oriented music, such as soundtrack recordings, having suite-like sensibilities and a vingnette-like feel. Dedicated to Giancento Scelsi, a modern Italian composer, who also creates uniquely atmospheric soundscapes, this discs stands out by virtue of its drama, menace, and beauty.

What I especially like about Scelsi Morning is its gloriously varied and unusual sound palette. Ribot not only employs a wide variety of instruments, he places them in unique settings. Thus you get Ned Rothenberg making his bass clarinet sound like a didjeridu and honking goose on "Geese," backed by intriguing string and pump organ voicings interspersed with mesmerizing fugue-like passages. Much of it is very atmospheric, like a soundtrack to a noirish sci-fi movie (check out esp. "Our Daily Bread," with its blasts of fuzz guitar, Chinese-water-torture percussion, and very in-your-face violin playing). I especially like the faux-anthemic, Chinese-tinged "The Youth Brigade Triumphs Again (and Again)." All in all, garage-soundtrack-Nu Jazz might best describe what's going on here.

As I say, not for everyone, but highly recommended for those with big ears and not afraid to encounter a truly different music experience.


Poor effort - Not my cup of tea...   August 28, 2003
 3 out of 8 found this review helpful

I've been a big fan of Ribot's (even met him once) especially in the Zorn realm. Filmworks 8, his Cubanos project - both ablums are very good, even some of his other Tzadik releases are intersting but this album just seems to fail on many levels. I don't understand this type of stuff. First of all, it's been done already and secondly, here it's not done all that well.
For a real Ribot album try Filmworks 8 or Circle Maker by John Zorn. Ribot tears up the fret board on those - or look for Los Cubanos projects he did for Atlantic. All are great. He even did some great things with James Carter on "Layin' in the cut" - and his "Saints" album isn't bad either... Pass this one up though. It's not likely I will listen to this album again in the near future. I couldn't even get all the way thru it the first time...


buy it now   October 14, 2003
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

i must say that this album is one of my favorite ribot works...his guitar playing is top notch and the compositions display yet another side of the musical chameleon that he is...no more words, buy the record.


... recalls the primordial sounds of Shrek   May 16, 2004
Scelsi Morning finds guitarist Marc Ribot exploring the possibilities of "classical" forms in adherence to the rhythms of modern dance. The tracks on this album are taken from scores Ribot wrote to accompany both Wim Vanderheybus dance piece Inasmuch as Life is Borrowed and Yoshiko Chuma's Reverse Psychology. Tribal percussion, brittle electric guitar, ominous pump organs and droning clarinets all combine to make a sound not unlike Marc's old band - Shrek.

In the mid-80's, Ribot found himself in demand as THE avant garde guitarist for personalities like Tom Waits, Elvis Costello and the Lounge Lizards. Currently, just about any John Zorn gig needing a guitar features Ribot. In between, Ribot founded Shrek, a powerful unit that transposed the energy of Albert Ayler's 1960's free-jazz maelstrom into a rock guitar context. After signing with Atlantic Records for a few albums to explore his more accessible Los Cubano's Postizos band, it seemed as though Ribot had abandoned Shrek's primal sound. Apparently not; if anything, this album is a throwback of sorts.

Opening with blistering guitar work and settling into a familiar tribal pattern of ritualistic percussion, Scelsi Morning takes the listener back to Ribot's Shrek days with a vengeance. Further tracks reveal a compositional maturity un-hinted at in those halcyon days. Clarinets play interweaving harmonies, organs bubble and drone while Ribot coaxes out ethereal as well as discordant shards from his guitar. Although having been conceived as music to accompany dance, these pieces more than stand on their own.