''Requiem for What's His Name'' is the second album by

Marc Ribot Marc Ribot (; born May 21, 1954) is an American guitarist and composer. His work has touched on many styles, including no wave, free jazz, rock, and Cuban music. Ribot is also known for collaborating with other musicians, most notably Tom Wai ...

& The Rootless Cosmopolitans which was released by the Belgian label Les Disques du Crepuscule in 1992.

Recording

The album was recorded in New York City at Sound on Sound Recording except "Commit a Crime" which was recorded live at Desi Stadtteilzentrum in

Nuremberg, Germany Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ci ...

. Ribot stated "On the next record, ''Requiem for What’s His Name'', the focus moved towards composition. It’s almost impossible to get hold of it. I was interested in Balkan music at the time, certain ritual music ... in finding stuff I could do without ironic distance. For example, on ''Requiem for What’s His Name'', I covered “Sometimes I Feel like a Motherless Child,” one of the sadder songs in the world. I couldn’t do it without distance, but I wanted to make that distance painful, bring it to some kind of breaking point".Krasnow, D
Marc Ribot Interview
Bomb, accessed November 25, 2019

Reception

The

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

review by Brian Beatty awarded the album 4 stars, stating, "On his second release as a bandleader, guitarist Marc Ribot is joined by players familiar from his gigs as a hired sideman, including saxophonist Roy Nathanson of the Lounge Lizards and the Jazz Passengers and multi-reed player Ralph Carney from Tom Waits' touring band. Though less swinging and fresh than 1990's ''Rootless Cosmopolitans'', this album's original compositions and renditions of Duke Ellington and Howlin' Wolf tunes still leave plenty of room for Ribot's discordant guitar stylings".Beatty, B.
Allmusic Review
accessed June 12, 2011

Track listing

All compositions are by Marc Ribot, except where indicated otherwise. # "Requiem for What's His Name" – 4:29 # "Disposable Head" – 2:50 # "Clever White Youths" – 4:30 # "First Time Every Time" – 2:01 # "

Motherless Child "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child", also "Motherless Child", is a traditional Spiritual. It dates back to the era of slavery in the United States. An early performance of the song was in the 1870s by the Fisk Jubilee Singers. "Blue Ge ...

" (Anonymous) – 1:06 # "New" – 4:18 # "Reveille" – 1:08 # "Lamonte's Nightmare" (

Anthony Coleman Anthony Coleman (born August 30, 1955) is an avant-garde jazz pianist. During the 1980s and 1990s he worked with John Zorn on '' Cobra'', ''Kristallnacht'', '' The Big Gundown'', '' Archery'', and '' Spillane'' and helped push modern Jewish music ...

) – 5:56 # "March" – 2:00 # "Pony" (Ribot, Coleman) – 2:14 # "Yo, I Killed Your God" – 2:39 # "Commit A Crime" (

Chester Burnett Chester Arthur Burnett (June 10, 1910January 10, 1976), better known by his stage name Howlin' Wolf, was an American blues singer and guitarist. He is regarded as one of the most influential blues musicians of all time. Over a four-decade car ...

) – 3:19 # " Caravan" ( Juan Tizol, Duke Ellington, Irving Mills) – 3:48 # "Blues" – 3:11 # "1 Adolph 12" (Ribot, Jones) – 6:57

Personnel

– guitars, vocals, E-flat horn, piano, drum sequencing *Wilbo Wright (1, 2, 7–8, 11, 13) – detuned guitar (on (1)), bass *

Roy Nathanson Roy Jay Nathanson (born May 17, 1951) is an American saxophonist, composer, bandleader, actor and teacher. He became the leader and principal composer of the Jazz Passengers, a six piece group that he founded with Curtis Fowlkes in 1987. They have ...

(1, 2, 4, 6, 9, 13, 15) – soprano, chermia, alto, tenor *

Ralph Carney Ralph (pronounced ; or ,) is a male given name of English, Scottish and Irish origin, derived from the Old English ''Rædwulf'' and Radulf, cognate with the Old Norse ''Raðulfr'' (''rað'' "counsel" and ''ulfr'' "wolf"). The most common forms ...

(1–4, 6–9, 11–12, 14) – alto, sona, tenor, clarinet, assorted duck calls *

(1–3, 6–8, 10–14) – pump organ, sampler, piano, organ * Simeon Cain (1–4, 6–9, 11, 13, 15) – drums, percussion, drum overdubs * Syd Straw (3, 10) – background vocals, vocals *

Zeena Parkins Zeena Parkins (born 1956) is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist active in experimental, free improvised, contemporary classical, and avant-jazz music; she is known for having "reinvented the harp". Parkins performs on standard har ...

(6) – electric harp * Brad Jones (6, 15) – bass *Greg Jones (12, 14) – bass * Rock Savage (12, 14) – drums *J.D. Parran (15) – clarinet

References

{{Authority control 1992 albums Marc Ribot albums