Saxophonist Matana Roberts Carves Out Her Own Musical Space

Soundcheck | Nov 21, 2019

Composer, saxophonist, and mixed media artist Matana Roberts presents her latest in the multi-chapter work Coin Coin project which documents the African-American cultural and historical experience. “Memphis,” which is chapter four, mixes jazz, blues, traditional songs, free improv, and Afro-futurism into a heavy sonic quilt of “21st century liberation music.” (Matana Roberts calls her approach “panoramic sound quilting.”)
She "speaks memory," and "sings an American survival" in this chapter of the coin coin bloodline (Tiny Mixtapes), set in Memphis - home of Roberts’s grandmother- and around a story of a "wo(e)man chile named Liddie." Matana Roberts and her new band featuring Hannah Marcus on guitars, fiddle, and accordion; Ryan Sawyer on percussion; and Matt Lavelle on trumpet and bass clarinet, perform in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

Watch the session here:

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