Marc Ribot takes on Philly jazz organ trio tradition at Solar Myth

Marc Ribot may be a worldly guitarist and composer known for his session work for Tom Waits and Elvis Costello, but he will always remembered his roots.

At heart, Ribot is a Newark, New Jersey native who first earned his stripes playing funky, dirty, Hammond B-3 organ jazz with legend Captain Jack McDuff. Now, Ribot pays homage to the Philly-born organ jazz trio with his band, The Jazz-Bins, at Broad Street’s Solar Myth on Feb. 23 with Philadelphia drummer Chad Taylor and NYC B-3 organist Greg Lewis.

While Ribot’s last several albums have been with his Ceramic Dog ensemble, he is Philly-famous for having recorded music associated with locals such as Gamble, Huff and Teddy Pendergrass with his The Young Philadelphians featuring Jamaladeen Tacuma and G. Calvin Weston.

“I give Philly its props, but will always stick up for Newark and Red Bank,” said Ribot, laughing. “Mine is a rare exhibition of Jersey pride.”

With that, Ribot shouts out Newark’s Key Club where he played his first gigs in his early 20s with organist Jack McDuff, while recalling how hard he played in order to keep up with the endlessly energetic organ legend. Ribot reminds us that several of the jazz idiom’s greatest guitarists such as George Benson and Philly’s late Pat Martino cut their teeth with McDuff and through the organ jazz sound.

At the same time that Ribot was playing with McDuff in Newark, he also “checked out” the punk rock and No Wave scene of NYC at CBGB’s, which explains the jagged edge of many of his recordings.

“The intensity, the visceral quality of what I was playing with McDuff was similar to what I was experiencing at CBGB,” said Ribot.

“The jazz clubs in Newark back then – the Jersey shore, and Philly too – always had organ-based bands, and bars that had Hammond B-3s in the center of the room,” said Ribot. “The organ jazz sound crossed a lot of cultural lines… it was very working class.”

Then there is the conversation around Camden’s Richard “Groove” Holmes and Philadelphia jazz players Jimmy Smith, Charles Earland, Shirley Scott, Jimmy McGriff and Joey DeFrancesco – Hammond B-3 organists, all living within a 30-mile radius of downtown Philly – who revolutionized a soulful, “greasy” R&B jazz sound based around their keyboards. In Philly, they put the funky rhythm before the blues.

“To bring us back to the present day, organist Greg Lewis is someone who grew up with the pedals,” said Ribot. “He’s had a church gig forever, and has truly solid abilities on the organ’s foot-pedals – that’s what gives the jazz organ trio its feel… Greg is a force of nature.”

Ribot is also quick to say that choosing a great drummer for organ trio jazz’s traditions “was a difficult task, because they need to know that era – 50s and 60s soul jazz – and have a certain kind of fire… of which Taylor certain has. Chad burns.”

As for what Ribot has learned about his own abilities as a guitarist when it comes to organ jazz nearly 45 years after he first played it, he stated that age and experience have helped him along.

“But I’m nobody when it comes to this music. I’m the vacuum at the center of this project, but hopefully I am a vacuum that will pull something positive into existence.”

“I wish I could go into some grand deep concept behind why I wanted to do The Jazz-Bins, but mostly the concept, to be honest, is just fun,” he added. “This is just us goofing off and having a party. And in my opinion, there’s no better a party to have that one with a Hammond B-3 organ at its center.”