How do you pronounce Ribak? REE-bok, like the shoes

Style: Original jazz for the hips, head, and heart.

Instrumentation: Piano/keyboards, sax, upright bass, drums.  Can expand up to a quintet with woodwinds and brass, or down to a duo.

Venues Kurt Ribak has played:

Concert Halls, Nightclubs and Restaurants
Yoshi’s, Freight & Salvage, San Francisco Legion of Honor, de Young Museum, Jupiter, Hotel De Anza, Chaya Brasserie, Prima Ristorante, Enrico’s, Pearl's, Pres a Vi,  Bruno’s, Shanghai 1930, Downtown Restaurant, Paragon, The Albatross, Club Deluxe, Café Bastille, Café Claude, Café de la Presse, Hi-Ball Lounge, Maritime Hall, and many others.

Festivals
Fillmore Street Jazz Festival, San Francisco Jazz Festival, North Beach Jazz Festival, Union Street Jazz Festival, Shasta County Blues Festival, American Arts Festival, San Anselmo Art & Design Festival, and Yerba Buena Gardens.

Churches
First United Methodist (Pt. Richmond, CA), Moraga Valley Presbyterian Church (Moraga, CA), Christian Church of Pacific Grove (Pacific Grove, CA), and Lafayette United Methodist Church (Lafayette, CA).

Radio Shows
KCSM-FM (San Mateo, CA) Morning Cup of Jazz, Desert Island Jazz, Mid-Day Jazz, West Coast Live (KALW-FM, San Francisco, CA), KCSM Desert Island Jazz, KRKD (Oakland, CA), KPFA, KKUP, KALW, and others.

Kurt Ribak (pronounced REE-bok, like the shoes) showed a penchant for finding rhythm and music where he could.

Kurt’s parents were not players but lovers of music.  Ancestors include a female leader of an all-male band (“Stella and her Fellas”) and Simon Rodia, the creator of the Watts Towers, a major work of folk art.  

When Kurt was about four years old his mother found him dancing to the sound of the dishwasher.  More conventional early musical experiences included playing ‘cello and singing in the San Francisco Boys Chorus, which performed with the San Francisco Symphony and Opera.

A Berkeley, CA native, Kurt attended UC Berkeley, where he continued playing classical music and played in the UC Jazz Ensembles.  Kurt met pianist Greg Sankovich there and reconnected with his fellow San Francisco Boys Chorus alumnus, saxophonist Lincoln Adler.   Kurt continues to play with Greg and Lincoln.

After a battle with tendinitis, Kurt won scholarships to Berklee College of Music.  He graduated with top honors after practicing obsessively.  He also spent many hours transcribing and absorbing the styles of bassists Paul Chambers, Ray Brown, and Charles Mingus and dissecting the compositions and arrangements of Nigerian bandleader Fela Kuti and R&B giant James Brown.

At Berklee College of Music Kurt learned he loved composition and songwriting.  His early tunes reflect a strong Thelonious Monk influence, while others reflect his love of the great bassist/composer/bandleader Charles Mingus, whose music he studied intensively at Berklee.  Later tunes bring to mind Horace Silver, Lee Morgan, and the South African composer Abdullah Ibrahim. 

Kurt says what he’s trying for in his music is “Charles Mingus meets The Meters.  They go to Duke Ellington’s house to jam, and every so often Cachao and Thelonious Monk sit in.” 

Kurt leads the Kurt Ribak Trio and has worked as a musician in settings ranging from circuses to sharing the stage with preachers and fire-breathing strippers.  (Kurt notes these were different events.)  Kurt has performed in venues ranging from Yoshi's to a club where someone stashed a loaded .45 in his bass bag.  Kurt no longer plays there.

In June 2012 Kurt was in an auto accident, seriously injuring his left hand and forearm.  Nine operations and over a year later he is still recovering but has resumed playing between surgeries.  He notes, “It’s a tough way to find out, but when I was hurt I learned how many people loved me, cared about me.  They say it takes a village to raise a child.  It also takes a community to heal someone.” 

Kurt Ribak has just released his fourth recording as a leader, titled "I Got One More!"  The Kurt Ribak Trio has three CDs out, all of which enjoy airplay on KCSM-FM and other jazz stations.  He has led his group at venues throughout the greater Bay Area and beyond, including sold-out appearances at Yoshi’s. 

CD info
Our newest CD, I Got One More! is available at CDBaby.  Our earlier three CDs are at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/kurtribaktrio.  You can hear samples and/or buy CDs and downloads.  You can also find us on iTunes. 

You can also purchase the CDs at http://www.afm6.org/cdstore.htm  and at amazon.com.  They are available for download at emusic.com, iTunes, and other major download sites.  You can also buy the CDs at Groove Yard, 5555 Claremont Avenue Oakland, CA 94618 and at Down Home Music, 10341 San Pablo Avenue, El Cerrito, CA 94530.

Contact: Kurt Ribak

Phone: 510-703-7035

e-mail: kurt@ribak.com

Drums

Matt Willis

MATT WILLIS, drums was born in Detroit in the late 50's and has made California and Hawaii his home since the late 1970's. Extremely versatile in all musical styles with a dynamic groove and easygoing nature, he performs throughout northern California with top musicians including world-renowned steel drum artist Jeff Narell, guitarist Ray Obeido, and jazz composer/ bassist Kurt Ribak among many others. Past credits include Hawaiian artists such as Henry Kaleialoha Allen, Loyal Garner and Melveen Leed plus American oldies acts the Shirelles, Drifters and Coasters. Matt is expert in Brazilian and Caribean rhythms as a result of years playing with Jeff Narrell and Batucaje.  Matt currently resides with his wife and children in the Bay Area.

Additional performers with the Kurt Ribak Trio, Quartet and Quintet


LINCOLN ADLER, Saxophones.  Lincoln started playing various musical instruments at the age of 5, eventually being drawn 
to the saxophone in high school. Lincoln became fascinated by the power of music to communicate feelings across the boundaries of 
language and culture. He developed his sound playing in Bay Area bands and refined his abilities at the University of California, 
Berkeley as a member of the UC Jazz Ensembles. He studied with some great teachers, including legendary saxophonist Joe Henderson and 
local hero Hal Stein. In Los Angeles he became an in-demand session player and composer/producer for TV and film. He released four albums 
under his own name as well as one with the L.A. based Rain-bo Tribe, and two with Times 4. Lincoln has performed and recorded with many 
artists including actor/pianist Jeff Goldblum, The Jets, kd lang, and Olivia Newton John.  Lincoln plays regularly with Kurt Ribak and is a member of jazz-funk group Times 4, including multiple appearances at both Yoshi's Nightspots.  His musical influences include Sonny Rollins, Johnny Griffin, Grover Washington Jr., Stanley Turrentine, Gustav Mahler and Meshell Ndegeocello.

Drummer Tim Solook played with the Kurt Ribak Trio from 2003 until December 2006, when he returned to Houston in search of more work and affordable housing.  He appeared on the Kurt Ribak Trio's debut recording, "Kurt Ribak Trio."