09/30 @ 8:00pm - Artist In Residence: Matana Roberts

“Ms. Roberts isn’t just mildly curious to expand her medium: She seems driven to do it.”  - NY Times

“Matana is definitely nondescriptive. She’s not a lady, she’s not a man; she’s just a being…” – Jazz Times

“Roberts is a deep traditionalist who looks beyond the rigid distinctions and definitions of musical style” – Chicago Defender

“…alto saxophonist and clarinetist Matana Roberts –add this name to the frustratingly short list of excellent, female reed players…” – All About Jazz

“…Roberts is a fluid, elegant player who rejects the star soloist approach of many a saxophonist….” – BBC Jazz

“The sound of Matana Roberts’ alto sax spans jazz her-story, from its roots in New Orleans, through the swinging ‘30s-40s, to the New Thing.” – All About Jazz

Matana Roberts COIN COIN :  a blood narrative in blacks, browns, reds , and blues….

Since 2005 Saxophonist/composer  Matana Roberts has been experimenting  on  a sound narrative about the intricacies, contradictions and questions  that surround  the human bloodline experience. How when broken down into the most minute details  new meanings arise  beyond  the surface levels of  one dimensional human acceptance; generally  attached to shades of  difference, and fear of  the unknown. Transcending  sometimes the unbearable  in order to create new possibilities of understanding the human condition.

Using herself and  research she has done on her own bloodline history and various ensembles she leads  as the  “guinea pig”  in this sound  endeavor, she has been able to cull  a  myriad of rich and awe inspiring stories that speaks many interesting truths about the flexibility and wonder of  individual understanding.  Transversing the American South of days past– traveling reflections of African, French, Irish, English, Scottish, Canadian, and Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw Native America history, Matana is weaving together stories and lore that speak to a very distinct,  historically experimental, yet common, American experience.  For her, a  very personal search in sound practice  that  opens a dialogue for possibilities  going beyond the specific; regenerating a focus that  she hopes in the end celebrates   the inherent  potential that resides in  the overflowing capability of  human love, sadness, kindredness, perseverance, and joy.

COIN COIN, in essence, a musical monument to the human experience.

For her residency at the Issue Project Room Matana has decided to use her time there to create what she is calling  “COIN COIN Happenings” based on ideas and concepts she has used to put together some of the larger ensemble chapters. Purposely pairing down each piece to  duo live instrumental pairings, combined with  pre arranged field recordings, she will experiment in ways that she has been unable to yet in some of the large ensemble pieces, aiming to create sonic environments that would pull even the most particular witness in.  These Happenings will be based around three upcoming chapters of the work, whose current working titles are:

Wed September 30^th– Chapter 6: exodus: bell, book, and candle

Thursday October 29^th–Chapter 7: papa joe

Wednesday November 18^th– Chapter 8: the field(s) of memphis

Her last performance in the Issue residency ( Wed, December 9^th) will be the premiere of  a current new reworking of a large ensemble chapter — Chapter 1—Gens de Couleur Libre/Free People of Color

Each performance will be followed by reading from Matana’s self published ‘zine about the project Fat Ragged  and will evolve from there into a question and answer session for anyone in attendance about the project as well as a discussion of resources  that can be used  searching for ones genealogical traces.

Matana (mah-tah-nah) Roberts, is a dynamic saxophonist, composer and improviser, who tries to expose in her music the mystical roots and spiritual traditions of American creative expression.

As a Chicago native  she was fortunate enough to be surrounded by musicians who showed her by distinct example the importance of listening to one’s personal creative voice while at the same time using the profound and many layered traditions of jazz and improvised musics to act only as her creative guide, not as her creative definer. By using their mentorship, she has been able to craft a voice and creative focus that truly speaks to her own true artistic individuality. She feels strongly that her music should not only reflect the many colors and moods of universal human emotions, but that it should also testify, critique, document, and respond to the many socio-economic, historical, and cultural inequalities that exist not only in this country, but all over the world.

Matana, a 2006 Van Lier fellow, Brecht Forum fellow, and 2008 and 2009 Alpert Award in the Arts nominee, has appeared as a collaborator on recordings and performances in the U.S., Europe, and Canada with her own ensembles as well as with the collaborative jazz trio Sticks and Stones, Black Rock Coalition founder Greg Tate’s Burnt Sugar, Reg E Gaines and Savion Glover’s homage project to the late John Coltrane, the Oliver Lake Big Band, and the Julius Hemphill Sextet  and Merce Cunningham dance. She recently released a homage project to her hometown entitled The Chicago Project, on Barry Adamson’s Central Control International, produced by pianist extraordinaire Vijay Iyer, featuring friends and supporters of her Chicago development. She has also recorded as a side person on recordings with such iconic bands as Godspeed You Black Emperor, TV on the Radio, Guillermo Scott Herren’s Savath and Savalas, Silver Mt Zion, and sound artist Daniel Given’s Day Clear/Day dark.  Matana is a member  of the AACM– Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and the BRC– Black Rock Coalition. 

She has played alongside some of the most intriguing creative sound visionaries spanning across genres of this time period and currently resides in New York City