art credit: El Rey - based on a photo by David Meiland

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

late April - May 2008 Gigs

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Kurt Ribak Trio Merchandise

CD Purchases - Buy the @#$! CDs
You can buy the Kurt Ribak Trio CDs online at CDBaby, and at Musicians Union Local 6.
Kurt Ribak Trio - debut CD cover Kurt Ribak Trio "more" CD cover DigStation - Indie Music Downloads

Kurt Ribak Trio CDs
Our second CD, titled "more, " is at all the same locations as the first CD.  The new CD has gotten repeated airplay on KCSM 91.1 FM and KRKD 103.3 FM. 

Online purchases of CDs
You can buy the CDs online at CDBaby.com.  
Here's the link for the debut Kurt Ribak Trio CD (three fingers),
and the link for the Kurt Ribak Trio CD "more."

Store purchases
You can also buy the CD at Groove Yard, 5555 Claremont Avenue Oakland, CA 94618, and at Down Home Music, 10341 San Pablo Avenue, El Cerrito, CA. Go to my CD page for more info.

Downloads
You can download the Kurt Ribak Trio recordings at iTunes and emusic.com, as well as elsewhere. We've been getting some attention at emusic - the recording is rated four out of five stars. You can do a trial membership for cheap, and recordings are way cheaper to download at emusic than with iTunes.  The new recording is available for sale at iTunes, emusic, and elsewhere.

Live downloads
You can go to BayTaper.com or http://mefeedia.com/feeds/21779/ to download our July 2, 2006 show at the Fillmore Jazz Festival. There are also some excellent photos there. The show is rated five stars out of five.

Big in Japan - or at least slightly less obscure...The track "Pseudoafrocubanismo" from the first CD was licensed in Japan for use in a jazz compilation recording, "Jazz Bar 07." The first and second Kurt Ribak Trio CDs are also selling well in Japan.  In fact, it is easier to buy our CDs in a store in Japan than in the US.  What a strange world it can be...


Myspace site
You can also go to our Myspace page.  The one for the Kurt Ribak Trio has songs up on the site and gig listings.  There is also a Kurt Ribak Myspace site that is specifically for Kurt and includes his personal blog.  Add us to your friend list!

   

Kurt Ribak Trio - debut CD cover Kurt Ribak Trio "more" CD cover

Click on the covers above to go to the CDBaby website, where the recordings are for sale.

 on to the gigs....


Sunday, April 27, 7 PM to 10:30 PM - and the last Sunday of every month
Kurt Ribak Trio - Original Jazz
plus classic Blues and R&B
The Riptide
http://www.riptidesf.com
3639 Taraval @ 47th Ave.
San Francisco, CA
No Cover

 Riptide sign

We appear at the Riptide the last Sunday of every month.  This gig is a huge amount of fun and has been building a nice buzz.  This bar is owned by Les James and his business partner David.  Les is the drummer for Red Meat and The Burning Embers.  The owners and staff are really great, and it's a nice slightly funky neighborhood bar.  We play stuff in much more of an R&B and blues direction here - it fits the room better, 'cause it sure ain't Chaya!

Blues/R&B singer and guitarist GG Amos appears with us regularly on this gig.  She can really tear it up.  Her band appears regularly in the Sacramento area as well as playing at The Chieftain at Fifth and Howard in SF.  Long-time residents may remember this as the M&M Bar, a popular bar for journalists.

Matt Willis will be on drums, subbing for Randy Odell.   Greg Sankovich is the regular keyboardist on the gig, but on occasion GG's keyboardist Taki Komori has filled in.  Lincoln Adler, who plays with Greg in Times 4 occasionally sits in on sax, and Bob Langlie of Blue Sky Band and Sheilani Alix both make guest appearances.  Bob has a powerful voice, and Sheila can draw everybody in when she sings Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready."



RADIO APPEARANCE
Tuesday, April 29, 10 AM to noon
Kurt Ribak on the air - KRKD 103.3 FM
Celebrating Duke Ellington's Birthday

Tuesday, April 29 is Duke Ellington's birthday.  KRKD will be broadcasting Duke's music all day.  I recorded a segment featuring Duke Ellington's bass players.  If you can pull in the signal (it's broadcast out of Oakland) there should be a lot of great music happening.


Wednesday, April 30, 8:00 PM to 11:00 PM
Kurt Ribak Trio - Original jazz
Jupiter
2181 Shattuck Avenue (at Center Street), Berkeley,
across from the Berkeley main BART station
510-THE-TAPS for directions
510-THE-ROCK for information on music and specials
http://www.jupiterbeer.com
No cover
21 and over

This is always a fun place to play. Jupiter is a very popular place - they've got an excellent beer selection, food, a patio area, and lots of attractive twentysomethings. It's near the UC campus and is easily accessible by BART. Have some beer and food, people watch or hang out with friends, and listen to us play. We will be playing in the patio barring inclement weather.

Greg Sankovich will be on keyboards, with Matt Willis on drums. 
 
  
 

Saturday, May 3 - 9 PM to 11:15 PM - note corrected time - earlier announcement listed 8 PM as start time
Kurt Ribak Quartet - Original jazz
Downtown Restaurant
http://www.downtownrestaurant.com
2102 Shattuck Ave
Berkeley, CA 94704
(510) 649-3810

We last played at Downtown two or three years ago sharing a bill with Lorna K.  This will be our return to Downtown, which now wants a bit more bump to the music than before.  Greg Sankovich will be on piano with Matt Willis on drums.  Lincoln Adler will be on saxophones.  I'm sure with these guys on the job we can light up the room nicely.



Sunday, May 4, 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM - and the first Sunday of every month

Kurt Ribak Trio - Original jazz
Chaya Brasserie
http://www.thechaya.com/
location & info

132 The Embarcadero
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 777-8688

Chaya is known for its "Japanese-inspired French cuisine." The food and service are outstanding, they have some very nice wines, and they have some great views of the Bay Bridge.  

Greg Sankovich will be on keyboards, with Matt Willis on drums.  These guys get a great musical dialog going.

NOTE:  There is a change of managers handling music at Chaya.  We don't know whether we will have a gig there after June.  As a result, this would be a really good time to come see us at Chaya!

Chaya has a specially priced menu at the bar while we are playing, so you can drink and dine on a smaller budget than Chaya normally requires.  I've had friends comment that the happy hour arrangement is one of the best values in the city. Beware, though - you sit in the dining room area, it's a lot more expensive.

This gig is very accessible by public transit.  It is near the F Market streetcar line (It's a block and a half away from Market) and the Embarcadero BART station. It is also very close to the Ferry Building. The ferry can be a wonderful way to get to and from San Francisco. I strongly encourage people to use any of these means for getting to the gig. For those of you in the East Bay, this is a very easy gig to get to by public transit. Besides, this way you don't need to worry so much about having a few drinks!

 sidewalk view   



Saturday, May 17, 9:30 PM to 12:30 AM
Kurt Ribak Quartet - original jazz
The Albatross
1822 San Pablo Avenue (two blocks north of University, west side of the street)
Berkeley, CA 94710
510-843-2473 (510-THE-BIRD)
http://www.albatrosspub.com/
21 and over
$5.00 Cover charge

The Albatross (aka The Bird) has been around since 1964. Current owners Wendy Halambeck and Linda Zsilavetz did a wonderful job of revitalizing the place without losing the charm it had. 

There are lots of board games available, lots of room for darts, a nice fireplace in the back, and food. It's a very friendly, comfortable place. They now have a hard liquor license, so it is a great place to have a single malt scotch or the like.

Band personnel is Greg Sankovich on keyboards, Rob Hart on drums and Lincoln Adler on saxophones.




Saturday, May 24, 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM - note this is a SATURDAY appearance at Chaya - also note later hours.
Kurt Ribak Trio - Original jazz
Chaya Brasserie
http://www.thechaya.com/
location & info

132 The Embarcadero
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 777-8688

Chaya is known for its "Japanese-inspired French cuisine." The food and service are outstanding, they have some very nice wines, and they have some great views of the Bay Bridge.  

Fred Harris will be on keyboards, with Rob Hart on drums.  Fred and I go way back, to the days of being the house band at Club Deluxe.  Fred is a monster keyboardist and is a great guy.

NOTE:  There is a change of managers handling music at Chaya.  We don't know whether we will have a gig there after June.  As a result, this would be a really good time to come to Chaya!

Chaya has a specially priced menu at the bar while we are playing, so you can drink and dine on a smaller budget than Chaya normally requires.  I've had friends comment that the happy hour arrangement is one of the best values in the city. Beware, though - you sit in the dining room area, it's a lot more expensive.

This gig is very accessible by public transit.  It is near the F Market streetcar line (It's a block and a half away from Market) and the Embarcadero BART station. It is also very close to the Ferry Building. The ferry can be a wonderful way to get to and from San Francisco. For those of you in the East Bay, this is a very easy gig to get to by public transit. Besides, this way you don't need to worry so much about having a few drinks!




Sunday, May 25, 7 PM to 10:30 PM - and the last Sunday of every month
Kurt Ribak Trio - Original Jazz
plus classic Blues and R&B
The Riptide
http://www.riptidesf.com
3639 Taraval @ 47th Ave.
San Francisco, CA
No Cover

 Riptide sign

We appear at the Riptide the last Sunday of every month.  This gig is a huge amount of fun and has been building a nice buzz.  This bar is owned by Les James and his business partner David.  Les is the drummer for Red Meat and The Burning Embers.  The owners and staff are really great, and it's a nice slightly funky neighborhood bar.  We play stuff in much more of an R&B and blues direction here - it fits the room better, 'cause it sure ain't Chaya!

Blues/R&B singer and guitarist GG Amos appears with us regularly on this gig.  She can really tear it up.  Her band appears regularly in the Sacramento area as well as playing at The Chieftain at Fifth and Howard in SF.  Long-time residents may remember this as the M&M Bar, a popular bar for journalists.

Matt Willis will be on drums, subbing for Randy Odell.  Greg Sankovich is the regular keyboardist on the gig, but on occasion GG's keyboardist Taki Komori has filled in.  Lincoln Adler, who plays with Greg in Times 4 occasionally sits in on sax, and Bob Langlie of Blue Sky Band and Sheilani Alix both make guest appearances.  Bob has a powerful voice, and Sheila can draw everybody in when she sings Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready."



Wednesday, May 28, 6:00 to 9:00 PM - and the last Wednesday of every month

Kurt Ribak Trio - Original jazz
Cato's Ale House
http://www.mrcato.com/
3891 Piedmont Ave., Oakland, CA
510-655-3349
all ages, no cover

We play the last Wednesday of every month. Cato's is a beer and wine place with a lot of good bar grub as well. Their beer selection is excellent, and you can bring your kids if you wish.  Dave Casini is on vibes with Hal Richards on woodwinds.

 



Thursday, May 29, 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Kurt Ribak Trio - original jazz
Napa Downtown Association's "Chef's Market Concert Series"
First Street Bridge
Napa, CA
General info
napa downtown logo

This will be a trio gig with Greg Sankovich on keyboards and TBA.  It should be fun to be playing in Napa.  I've been wanting to perform more in the wine country - this will be a good opportunity.


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


Change at Pres a Vi

Pres a Vi has ended their music program.  

Last Kurt Ribak Trio Performance at Prima Ristorante was on 2/8
Prima remodeled the bar and got rid of their piano. At that time they ended their regular music program.

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, age 5, to her father


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

Sheilani Alix
Sheilani Alix often appears with us, and she often hires me and Greg Sankovich to back her.  She does a killer version of the Curtis Mayfield song "People Get Ready."

Here's Sheilani singing "The Nearness of You."

 
Here are some CDs I played on -

Lorna K
I have played with Lorna K for over a decade - she hasn't been playing out much lately but has been working on a CD project - "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."

Lorna appeared at The Plush Room in the York Hotel in San Francisco last December in one of the final events before the venue closes.  The instrumentalists on the recording and on the Plush Room date were Greg Sankovich on piano and Hammond Organ, Kurt Ribak on upright bass, Tom Griesser on clarinet and saxophone, and Bryan Bowman on drums. 

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.


T-shirts

We have a few Kurt Ribak Trio t-shirts remaining. These are a seven-color print on Hanes Beefy-T shirts, so these are a quality product. These echo the artwork of the first CD. They are black, with the three-colored hand on the front and the words "Kurt Ribak Trio" on the back. They come in women's sizes and cut from small to L and men's from small to medium. e-mail me at: kurt@ribak.com if you would like to buy a shirt, or catch up with me at a gig. Check them out here. Drummer Tim Solook and his wife Lisa are modeling them at our Fillmore Jazz Festival gig.

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

writer's block


Gig Mailing List

To join my mailing list, you are welcome to click on SubscribeGiglist and include the address where you want to receive the mail in the body of the message. You are encouraged to mention how you heard of me.

To get off the mailing list, just click UnsubscribeGiglist and include the address you want dropped from the mailing list in the body of the message.

site map page

Gig announcement archives

2008 gigs
April '08 gigs March '08 gigs February '08 gigs January '08 gigs

2007 gigs
December '07 gigs November '07 gigs October '07 gigs September '07 gigs July/August '07 June '07 gigs May '07 gigsApril '07 gigs March '07 gigsFebruary '07 gigs January '07 gigs

2006 gigs
december '06 gigs november '06 gigs October '06 gigs September '06 gigs August '06 gigs June-early August '06 gigs June '06 gigs May '06 gigs April '06 gigs March '06 gigs February '06 gigs January '06 gigs

2005 gigs
December '05 gigsNovember '05 gigsOctober '05 gigsSeptember '05 gigs August '05 gigs July '05 gigs May / June '05 gigs May '05 gigs March '05 gigs February '05 gigs January '05 gigs

2004 gigs
February November February September August July June May May March February

Music Videos - Old and Not So...

The Mighty Boosh - Jazz Trance - Courtesy of the BBC - link sent by Dave Casini - thanks!

Reg Kehoe and his Marimba Queens
(better file) or YouTube version. The whole thing is something else! The first site has a much bigger file but it is a longer clip.

see... banjo does get the ladies all hot and bothered - check out this Eddie Peabody video

X
These guys were my favorite rock 'n roll band back in the day

See How We Are

The one and only... The Cramps! These guys have some brilliant videos.
Ultra Twist - it's warped and dumb but I love it!
Like a Bad Girl Should
Garbageman

Put Down the Duckie - Sesame Street
Rubber Ducky - Sesame Street

Superstition - a burning version by Stevie Wonder on Sesame Street

Cardboard Upright Bass

Other videos

Hello Cthulhu is what happens when you cross Hello Kitty with H.P. Lovecraft, with a special holiday greeting from Hello Cthulhu.

Jack Sheldon's "Jazz Christmas" is a seasonal gem.

And here is comic Rob Paravonian's rant about Pachelbel's Canon in D - great stuff if like me you are deeply sick of Pachelbel's Canon. Bush Pilot - thanks to my pal David Javelosa for forwarding this to me.

Japanese War Tubas  and other sonic oddities....

My Bald Head
Here we have a website with a directory of musicians with bald/shaved heads. takeitfromthehead.com The site is maintained by Pete Levin, keyboardist for the late Gil Evans, Paul Simon, Jimmy Giuffre, Annie Lennox, Tony Levin Band, Lenny White and the brother of the famous bassist (also bald) Tony Levin. Pete Levin contacted me and asked if I would like to be on the site, so there I am, right up there with the pop singer Seal, the thrash-metal guitarist Kerry King of Slayer, and Dixieland clarinetist Pete Fountain.


Kurt Ribak Trio - debut CD cover Kurt Ribak Trio "more" CD cover

Click on the covers above to go to the CDBaby website, where the recordings are for sale.


 

photo: Susan Bigger

photo: Mark Thomas

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