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

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Press Release - Yoshi's San Francisco June 30 2009 concert
EPK (Electronic Press Kit)  bio    profile by KCSM-FM announcer Michael Burman     musical styles and influences     reviews    photo     mp3s    Kurt Ribak Trio Myspace site

Video interview of Kurt Ribak

This video interview was made by Lincoln Adler - www.LincolnAdler.com. Lincoln plays with us often and is the saxophonist of Times 4, the jazz-funk group Greg Sankovich also plays in.

Kurt Ribak Trio at Yoshi's San Francisco - June 30, 2009

Kurt Ribak Trio Merchandise

 

East Bay Express Review:
There was a review of the CD in the "Local Licks" column of the East Bay Express. 

NEW CD project by Sheilani Alix
If you've seen us playing in the last few years you've almost certainly seen vocalist Sheilani Alix with us at some point.  Sheilani sang "People Get Ready" at our Yoshi's SF date last June 30, and she made quite an impression. 

Sheilani is recording her debut CD, and the backing musicians are all ones that regularly appear in the Kurt Ribak Trio and Kurt Ribak Quartet.  Matt Willis will be featured on drums, Greg Sankovich on keyboards, Lincoln Adler on saxes, and Kurt on bass.  Guitarist Tim Fox will also appear on some tracks.  This should be good - Sheilani is recording at the legendary Fantasy Records in Berkeley. 

CD sales in Japan
Disk Union licensed the track "Prima," from the "more" CD by the Kurt Ribak Trio.   We are included in the "Jazz Bar 2008" recording, a compilation of recent jazz recordings.  The track "Pseudoafrocubanismo" from our debut CD ("Kurt Ribak Trio" - three fingers cover) was included in "Jazz Bar 2007," which has been selling well in Japan. 

Our newest CD, "gone" has been selling especially well in Japan. 

I'll be playing in the band for a production of "THE WAVE" by Marsh Youth Theater
at The Marsh in San Francisco - http://www.themarsh.org/myt_perform.html

The band is David Denny and GG Amos on guitars, Randy Odell on Drums, Fred Harris as Music Director and keyboardist, and me on bass.

Written by Ron Jones
Directed by Cliff Mayotte
A 1967 classroom experiment in Fascism that shook a school!

School Performances:
Friday, January 29, 12:30 pm
Thursday, February 4, 10:00 am

Regular Performances:
Saturday, January 30, 5:00 pm
Sunday, January 31, 5:00 pm
Friday, February 5, 8:00 pm
Saturday, February 6, 8:00 pm
Sunday, February 7, 2:00 pm
Additional performances -
Sat., Feb 13, 2 PM
Sun., Feb. 14 - 2 PM
Directed by Cliff Mayotte
Music by David Denny, Kathy Peck, Emily Klion
Music Directed by Frederick Harris
Choreography by Tricia Lam
Sets by Alex Bargas

The Marsh is proud to announce Marsh Youth Theater’s (MYT’s) Teen Troupe in the world premiere of THE WAVE, a musical by Ron Jones. The play is based on an actual classroom experiment in fascism conducted by Jones in 1967 while he was a history teacher at Cubberley High School in Palo Alto. During a five-day period students gave up their ‘freedom’ for the prospect of being superior to their classmates. Almost immediately, the experiment got out of control. Student curiosity and questioning were replaced with conformity and violence. The perspectives of the actual students who comprised the experiment in 1967 will be incorporated into the show’s production.

On a side note, the music is co-composed by Kathy Peck, once of The Contractions and Baby Buddha, now active with the HEAR Foundation.

CANCELED -Saturday, February 6, 7 PM to 10:30 PM - CANCELED
Lorna K  - jazz vocals
Croll's New Zealander
http://www.the-newzealander.com/
1400 Webster Street
Alameda CA
510-769-8555

The New Zealander is now closed.  Unfortunately, that also means Lorna K's gig there is over.

Wednesday, Febrary 24, 6:00 to 9:00 PM - and the FOURTH 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 FOURTH 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.  Michael Hatfield is on vibes,  Hal Richards is on woodwinds.

Friday, February 26, 8 PM
PickPocket Ensemble - Folk music from an imaginary country
http://www.pickpocketensemble.com/Red Poppy Art House
http://www.redpoppyarthouse.org
2698 Folsom St
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 826-2402

I'm now a regular member of the pickPocket Ensemble - http://www.pickpocketensemble.com/ .  We are going into Fantasy Records in mid-February to record the next CD.  This is my debut recording as a regular member of the pickPocket Ensemble, led by accordionist and composer Rick Corrigan. These guys have a really distinctive sound - it has elements of Balkan, klezmer, gypsy, jazz, and Mediterranean music. Despite the eclectic influences the music is really well-composed and has the organic flow of folk music.

This group also features my buddy Tim Fox on guitar, Marguerite Ostrovsksy on violin, and Michaelle Goerlitz on percussion. I believe Myra Chaney will also be recording with the group, playing 'cello.

Red Poppy is a listening room - I haven't played here before so I'll be curious to see what the place is like.

Sunday, February 28, 7:15 PM to 10:30 PM - and the last Sunday of every month
Kurt Ribak Quartet - Original Jazz
The Riptide
http://www.riptidesf.com
3639 Taraval @ 47th Ave. - near the Great Highway
San Francisco, CA 94116
No Cover, 21 and over

The Riptide is a way cool bar in the outer Sunset - in fact, it's almost at the Pacific Ocean.  It's a great little neighborhood bar co-owned by Les James, the drummer for one of my favorite country bands, Red Meat and for Plain High Drifters.  There is a hipster element, despite the location, and there is a very friendly neighborhood bar vibe despite the hipster element.  Best of both worlds, really. 

Kurt Ribak Trio played Yoshi's San Francisco June 30

Thanks to everybody who came out to the show.  There was a great turnout - 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. 

Tuesday, June 30 was one of the high points in my life. 


Here are some photos from that night:

all photos above: Mark Coggins


photo: Geri Tablit

"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, 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." Sheila will be recording her debut CD in a month or so - stay tuned for this - it should be really good. Expect to hear Greg Sankovich, Lincoln Adler, Matt Wills, and Tim Fox on this project.  
You can see Sheila performing the song with us at The Riptide in this video.

Here are some CDs I played on -

Lorna K
I have played with Lorna K for over a decade.  She has a new 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."

Lorna appeared at The Plush Room in the York Hotel in San Francisco December 2007 in one of its final events.  She sold out the room! 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.

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.

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!

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

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