Guitarist based in
NYC, first emerged with the
Lounge Lizards (post-
Arto Lindsay), but may be best known for his work with
Tom Waits. Along with
Michael Blair's
percussion, Ribot's guitar-work was a key element to Waits' 80's recordings (on
Rain Dogs,
Frank's Wild Years, and the live
Big Time). Under Waits' direction (
play it like a midget's bar mitzvah is a famous, alleged, instruction) Ribot's
skronk-y style fits in perfectly with Blair's
drop all the pans and play them with spoons percussion, and Waits' howlin' voice and broken street lyrical
genius.
Ribot went on to join Blair backing Elvis Costello on the album Spike. In addition he's played with T Bone Burnett, Sam Phillips, Foetus, Medeski Martin and Wood, John Zorn, and tons of others.
His solo work includes Rootless Cosmopolitans (with idiosyncratic covers of While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Wind Cries Mary), Requiem for What's His Name, Shoe String Symphonettes & Yo! I Killed Your God on Zorn's Tzadik label, and 2 recent albums with his band The Prosthetic Cubans, who do lovely (sometimes slightly fractured) Cuban music.