December 9-16, 2004

musicpicks

The Young Philadelphians

jazz

Hailing from Newark, N.J., and largely known as a leader in New York's downtown scene, Marc Ribot generously defers to his bandmates and our town's largely overlooked jazz legacy by dubbing this trio the Young Philadelphians. Given their genre-blending backgrounds, that's likely to be their only evident nod to jazz tradition. Local boys and fellow Ornette Coleman collaborators Jamaaladeen Tacuma (bass) and Calvin Weston (drums) fuse a healthy dose of funk with free-jazz excursions that bleed far enough into rock to please any jam-band aficionado. Ribot's simultaneously lyrical and visceral guitar attack has long earned him a spot beside Tom Waits and John Lurie, both noted category-defiers in their own right. Recently he's turned his focus to the avant-Latin group Los Cubanos Postizos. Expect these three to ably follow one another into whichever portions of the musical map they should choose to wander.

Mon., Dec. 13, 8 p.m., free, Houston Hall, 3417 Spruce St., 215-898-4444.

—Shaun Brady