Marc Ribot Plays Solo Guitar Works of Frantz Casseus

by Marc Ribot

supported by

Charlie Moonbeam This is a special release.

Haitian guitar compositions played by a jazz legend.

Every bit at soothing as I could ever imagine.

deeohgee Exquisite from beginning to end.
The vinyl sounds rich & luminous. Favorite track: Haitian Suite: Petro.

more...

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$11 USD or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Includes unlimited streaming of Marc Ribot Plays Solo Guitar Works of Frantz Casseus via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 7 days

5 remaining

Purchasable with gift card

$26 USD or more
Marc Ribot Plays Solo Guitar Works of Frantz Casseus Compact Disc
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Includes unlimited streaming of Marc Ribot Plays Solo Guitar Works of Frantz Casseus via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Sold Out

1.	Simbi 03:33	info	buy track
2.	Rara 01:44	info	buy track
3.	Prelude #2 01:08	info	buy track
4.	Haitian Suite: Petro 04:08	info	buy track
5.	Haitian Suite: Yanvalloux 03:04	info	buy track
6.	Haitian Suite: Mascaron 03:48	info	buy track
7.	Haitian Suite: Coumbite (Merci Bon Dieu) 03:17	info	buy track
8.	Prelude #1 01:03	info	buy track
9.	Merengue 01:31	info	buy track
10.	Improvisation 01:35	info	buy track
11.	Chanson 01:52	info	buy track
12.	Congo 03:16	info	buy track
13.	Dance (On Sunday) 03:17	info	buy track
14.	Serenade Lointaine 02:27	info	buy track
15.	Valse 04:13	info	buy track
16.	Untitled 01:40	info	buy track
17.	Romance 02:05	info	buy track
18.	Dance of the Hounsies 02:51	info	buy track
19.	Romance 1978 01:45	info	buy track
20.	Meringue Frangeul [Bonus Track] 01:18	info	buy track
21.	Sobo [Bonus Track] 03:53	info	buy track
22.	Nan Guinan [Bonus Track] 05:31	info	buy track

about

Long before Marc Ribot made a name for himself as a pioneering force in NYC's downtown music scene, and as guitarist for luminaries like Tom Waits, Wilson Pickett and The Lounge Lizards, he began his guitar studies as a teenager with close family friend, the Father of Haitian classical guitar, Frantz Casséus. In 1946, Frantz came to NYC from his native Port-au-Prince, Haiti with the ambition to compose a distinctly Haitian classical guitar music, to fuse the European classical tradition with Haitian folk elements as Heitor Villa-Lobos had done with his native Brazil’s and as Béla Bartók had done with Hungarian folk songs. His three recordings, Haitian Folks Songs (1953), Haitian Dances (1954) and Haitiana (1969) were released on Folkway Recordings (and since reissued by Smithsonian Folkways) and his compositions have been covered by artists worldwide including the song “Merci bon dieu” by Harry Belafonte.

In effort to preserve Frantz’s musical legacy, Marc edited a collection of Casseus' solo guitar compositions, and performed those same pieces on his 1993 album "Marc Ribot Plays Solo Guitar Works of Frantz Casseus". This remastered and expanded edition, with three additional bonus tracks recorded in 2020, marks the first time Marc's interpretations of this work is available on vinyl. Also available again on CD

From the original liner notes:
The pieces on this record are the work of my friend and teacher, Frantz Casseus. They were written over a period of approximately 40 years, from 1940 to 1980, most of which were spent in New York City, where Frantz emigrated in 1946. The music, however, remains consistently engaged with Haiti, where, in Port au Prince, 1915, Mr. Casseus was born. I believe Frantz saw it as his task to help create a national music for Haiti, and that as a composer, he used Haitian folk material in the same sense as Villa Lobos used the folk music of Brazil, Chavez that of Mexico, or Bartok that of Hungary. A formidable guitarist himself, Frantz originally recorded his own work. The four pieces of the “Haitian Suite” first appeared on a 1954 Folkway release. “Dance on Sunday”, “Dance of the Hounsies”, and “Simbi” appeared on a 1968 recording for the now defunct Afro-Carib label. Although I studied guitar with Mr Casseus, my own development (or perhaps regression) took me far from these studies. However, after complications from an early hand injury made it increasingly diffi cult for Frantz to play guitar, he and I began to discuss the possibility that I would record his work. This record is the most comprehensive recording of Frantz Casseus’s music for solo classical guitar.

In addition to the pieces mentioned above, it contains five compositions previously published as sheet music but never recorded by Frantz (Rara, Prelude #2, Serenade Lointaine, Valse and Romance) and six pieces (Romance 1978, Untitled, Chanson, Improvisation, Merengue and Prelude #1) previously unpublished in any form which Frantz, before his death in June 1993, had expressed a desire to have recorded. I made this recording with the hope that it will help reawaken an interest among listeners and classical guitarists alike in this beautiful but neglected body of work”. Marc Ribot, 1993

100% of the publishing proceeds benefits the "Frantz Casseus Young Guitarist Program" in Port-au-Prince Haiti, and other projects that promote the work of Frantz Casseus.

credits

released May 14, 2021

2021, Knockwurst Records

license

about

Marc Ribot New York, New York

Ribot was born in Newark,NJ in 1954. As a teen, he played guitar in garage bands while studying with his mentor, Haitian classical guitarist and composer Frantz Casseus. He moved to New York City in 1978. He was a member of the soul/punk Realtones, and John Lurie’s Lounge Lizards. Ribot has worked extensively with Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, composer John Zorn and producer T Bone Burnett. ... more

shows

Apr 26

Public Records

New York (NYC), NY

contact / help

Contact Marc Ribot

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Marc Ribot, you may also like:

Promises
by Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra

supported by 116 fans who also own “Marc Ribot Plays Solo Guitar Works of Frantz Casseus”

hypnotic and incredibly moving marsplutomusic
go to album
Suite for Max Brown
by Jeff Parker

supported by 114 fans who also own “Marc Ribot Plays Solo Guitar Works of Frantz Casseus”

A most hypnotic/comforting/freeing/fresh jazz record. hoopboyhandro
go to album
Forfolks
by Jeff Parker

supported by 109 fans who also own “Marc Ribot Plays Solo Guitar Works of Frantz Casseus”

journey through the secret life of planets💫 ellis paizlip
go to album
What Eludes Us
by De Beren Gieren

The seventh full-length from De Beren Gieren walks the line between spooky library music and free improv, shapeshifting constantly. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 12, 2024
go to album
Land forms - Live on Bebop Artist Project
by YenTing Lo

Backed by a trio of jazz musicians, the Taiwanese singer-songwriter develops physical landscapes as a vehicle for stunning sound poetry. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 3, 2024
go to album
John Ellis Big Bang - SONGS OF BANG
by John Ellis

featured on Bandcamp Radio Oct 17, 2023
go to album
Artlessly Falling
by Mary Halvorson's Code Girl

supported by 97 fans who also own “Marc Ribot Plays Solo Guitar Works of Frantz Casseus”

Mary Halvorson is a genius composer and guitarist who has developed her own musical language, and with Code Girl she has incorporated poetry into that language. Incredible compositions and lyricism (each track is a different kind of poem). Halvorson's playing is as great as usual, and all the other members of the band sound great. Robert Wyatt's singing in particular works extremely well in the tracks he's featured. Highly, highly recommend. rat
go to album