Marc Ribot (born 21 May 1954 in Newark, New Jersey) is an American guitarist and composer.
His own work has touched on many styles, including no wave, free jazz, and Cuban music. Ribot is also known for collaborating with other musicians, most notably Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, and composer John Zorn.
Ribot has performed and recorded with Tom Waits, John Zorn, David Sylvian, Jack McDuff, Wilson Pickett, The Lounge Lizards, Arto Lindsay, T-Bone Burnett, Medeski, Martin and Wood, Cibo Matto, Elysian Fields, Sam Phillips, Elvis Costello, David Poe, Allen Ginsberg, Foetus, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Susana Baca, The Black Keys, and the Lucien Dubuis Trio. He has also worked with Vinicio Capossela.
His work is featured on Waits' Rain Dogs, Franks Wild Years, Mule Variations and Real Gone. Ribot has appeared on numerous recordings by John Zorn. He played with Bill Frisell and Tim Sparks on Zorn's Masada Guitars.
Ribot has released two albums with his self-described "dance band," Marc Ribot y Los Cubanos Postizos (The Prosthetic Cubans), which has performed compositions by Arsenio Rodriguez.
Ribot admitted to Guitar Player a relatively-limited technical facility due to learning to play right-handed: "That's a real limit, one that caused me a lot of grief when I was working with Jack McDuff and realizing I wasn't following in George Benson's footsteps. I couldn't be a straight-ahead jazz contender if you held a gun to my head, but that begs the question of whether I would want to be one." (Guitar Player, June 1997)
He currently performs and records with his group Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog with bassist Shahzad Ismaily and drummer Ches Smith of the avant-garde band Secret Chiefs 3.
