Kurt Ribak (pronounced REE-bok, like the shoes) - bassist

Kurt Ribak Trio played Yoshi's San Francisco June 30, 2009 and
Yoshi's Oakland Monday, July 19, 2010 (sold out on a Monday - not bad for a "local act")   and June 27, 2011

Thanks to everybody who came out to the shows.  There were great turnouts - heck, we sold out Yoshi's Oakland!  Yoshi's was very impressed with the ticket sales, and you were all a wonderful audience.  We were touched, grateful, and humbled by the turnout.  Thank you very much. 

These nights were among the high points in my life. 

"One of the perks of being an unemployed musician is that you get to play much less bad music."  - Jack Daney

Hire us!

Kurt Ribak, individually, and the Kurt Ribak Trio collectively are available for other gigs. Leads for other gigs for the trio or for me as a sideman will be most welcome.   Feel free to call or e-mail.

Quotes about Kurt - > "Hugging Kurt is a like a big bear with no hair" - Monica, then age 5, to her father.

Bay Area Jazz Resources

Groove Yard Record Store and Newsletter
- Rick Ballard operates the Groove Yard at 5555 Claremont in Oakland. It's between the Rockridge and Temescal districts. It's a great jazz record store for used vinyl and new and used CDs by local as well as national and international artists. Rick has an e-mail newsletter. E-mail him at groove2@earthlink.net and request to be added and be up on the concerts, CDs, etc.

KCSM - FM Radio and Jazz Datebook
You can always check out who's playing in the Bay Area with KCSM-FM's Jazz Datebook.

You can listen to KCSM-FM  at 91.1 FM.  They are 24 hours jazz, no commercials. They are a huge contributor to the vitality of the Bay Area jazz scene.  You can listen online at http://www.kcsm.org/jazz91/listen.php

>We're like, all up in literature and stuff

Candy from Strangers

Mark Coggins is the author of the August Riordan series of mystery novels. The August Riordan character is a wise-cracking tough guy PI who is also a jazz bassist.

I got to know Coggins a while ago and he asked if he could use some of my music for a KQED podcast of "Candy from Strangers", the third book in the August Riordan series. William P. Arney of the Noir City Film Festival reads the first chapter with my music accompanying the story - specifically, "Prelude to a B Movie" and "Pseudoafrocubanismo," which appeared on the Kurt Ribak Trio debut CD.

The podcast is permanently at the following location: http://www.kqed.org/arts/writersblock/episode.jsp?id=13480

iTunes users can access The Writers' Block via the following URL:http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=82023860

Pulp Fiction
Also check out the Word for Word Theater Company performance of "Angel Face". This is a stage setting of a Cornell Woolrich story that originally appeared in the classic pulp magazine Black Mask.  Black Mask featured many of the best noir writers including Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler.

The Writers' Block is also distributed through NPR here: http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_detail.php?siteId=5593982

To go directly to the audio, use either of these:
stream: http://www.kqed.org/.stream/real/topics/arts/writers-block/0701-coggins-bloc k.rm.ram or
download: http://podcastdownload.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/151/510076/7092336/ KQED_7092336.mp3

Kurt as a sideman - aka - Other People's Music

Here are some CDs I played on -

Sheilani Alix
Sheilani's debut CD is called "When Night Falls."  It features Greg Sankovich on piano, B-3 organ, and Rhodes electric piano, Lincoln Adler on saxes, Matt Willis on drums and percussion, Tim Fox on nylon-string guitar, and Kurt on bass.  Greg was music director and co-producer, and I contributed a tune, "September Rain" to the CD.  It's available for physical purchase or download on CDBaby.  You can also get it on iTunes and at West Portal Music in SF.

Lorna K
I have played with Lorna K for two decades.  She has a CD out entitled "Lorna K and the Dunes." The recording features her take on songs by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys as well as some radical reinterpretations of songs including Duke Ellington's "What Am I Here For."

Alex Walsh's CD "Light Another Candle"is pop - a lot of it sounds like Mott the Hoople meets the Replacements to me. This was recorded in 2003. I play electric bass and upright on it.

Brian Schindele's CD The Moral is original straightahead jazz. I like it - the title tune kicks off the CD with some great drumming. This CD features Brian, drummer Tim Vaughan, Sheldon Brown on tenor sax, Tom Griesser playing sax on one track, Dave Scott on trumpet, cornet, and flugelhorn, Larry Leight on trombone, and Connie Champagne as featured guest vocalist on a ballad track.

I regularly played with Stephen Bigger at Moraga Valley Presbyterian Church, where he was music director. "Lights on the Horizon" is a CD of his contemporary Christian songwriting. Stephen sings lead on a number of the tunes, but he also features Amy Beth Nickelson and Katie O'Gorman, two very talented young members of the congregation at Moraga Valley.

Gig Mailing List

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