Marc Ribot releases Hurry Red Telephone with two quartet line-ups

Marc Ribot’s Hurry Red Telephone is released today, October 30, through Pi Recordings. The six-track instrumental album brings his guitar together with drummer Chad Taylor across two recording sessions and changing combinations of bass and saxophone.

For guitar listeners, the focus is ensemble improvisation rather than a new signature instrument or a documented studio rig. Four compositions are Ribot’s; two are by Frantz Casséus, the Haitian guitarist and composer who taught him.

One guitarist, different conversations

The record does not present every credited musician as a single large band. One session pairs Ribot and Taylor with bassist Sebastian Steinberg and alto saxophonist Briggan Krauss. The other features bassist Hilliard Greene, with tenor players James Brandon Lewis and Brian Settles appearing on different tracks.

The detailed album credits put Lewis on “New Monster” and “Rara,” Settles on “Gnat,” and Krauss on “Faucets of Terrible,” “Ghost of Sleeping” and “Nan Guinan.” David Watson adds bagpipes to the opening track, “New Monster.”

That gives a useful way into the album: follow the changing musicians around the same guitar-and-drums partnership. Pi’s account describes the Berlin recordings as the work of a group developed on tour, alongside material from an earlier New York studio session. These are not claims about a single all-star session.

A connection to Ribot’s guitar teacher

The Casséus compositions link this release to Ribot’s early guitar education, while the return of Taylor connects it to his previous work with the late bassist Henry Grimes. The label describes the project as a continuation of a musical direction Ribot and Taylor had explored with Grimes, rather than a recreation of that trio.

The artist’s Bandcamp now lists the album as released on October 30, with streaming and download options; Pi also lists CD and vinyl editions. The release was announced in September, so today’s development is the album’s arrival, not a newly announced project.

Want to explore Ribot’s wider guitar history? Read our Marc Ribot guitars and gear feature. That broader archive feature is not a record of the equipment used on Hurry Red Telephone.

Archive press photograph: Ebru Yildiz, courtesy of New West Records. The photograph does not document the Hurry Red Telephone recording sessions.