matana roberts: 'coin coin' and other things

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/Matana-roberts.jpg

saw her at last year's atp, playing a set of solo alto where she spent the whole set -- well, what i saw of it -- playing simple lines and then increasingly deconstructing them, showing off in a way impressive for its casual grasp of normal & extended technique. cerebral and meditative, and probably one of the most accomplished bits of music i saw at that festival.

getting some press for her new record, 'coin coin chapter one', which is the first of a twelve-piece ... thing: closest analogue would be something like that first charlie haden/carla bley record, but on a much larger scale; she's performed six of the twelve parts, and the recording of the first was done live-in-studio with a sixteen-piece ensemble including prepared ensemble and musical saw. she spends a lot of time doing recitative chant-singing about slavery. the idiom is free jazz, more or less, with digressions into folk-song modes and pastiche of earlier jazz forms. it's far more exciting than i'm making it sound.

it's also on constellation, which i'm not sure if i agree with or not. she has also recorded, i believe, with tortoise and prefuse 73.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FIVYIKzhzg

new album is AOTY contender

^Truth^

that youtube is amazing, definitely going to track a copy down

me too. the bit i listened to on sonnedclod was a wee bit scary and some kinda sublime
(link to flac d/l)
http://cstrecords.com/store/products/CST079-FLAC.html

it's a good record and an AMAAAAZING piece. was stunned last summer seeing the same piece as on the record, performed in montreal.

it's come up a bit on the rolling jazz thread, yall.

the idiom is free jazz, more or less, with digressions into folk-song modes and pastiche of earlier jazz forms.

there are probably other more proximate free-jazz comparisons, but it also sounds very mingusy to me, just in the dramatic aspect to even some of the instrumental music, and obviously to the sing-talking.

at first listen i also thought she spent a 'lot of time' doing the sing-chanting about slavery, but now i would have to say it just overwhelms at first.

this sounds like it would fulfill my Nicole Mitchell jones while being stylistically different, thanks for the heads up.

i've been trying to think of other comparisons which get to what i don't like about it, and i think the problem is it makes me think of henry cow, sorta

Brilliant album this, although I'm still absorbing it.
Mingus is a good reference point. Her vocals have some of the commanding presence of June Tyson on classic Sun Ra sides, with a touch of Linda Sharrock's abandon. Most recent thing it reminds me of is William Parker's incredible Double Sunrise Over Neptune, or some of his stuff with Leena Conquest on vocals.

still playing 'coin coin ch1' on the regular, what an incredible work

me too, easily my favourite discovery of last year (thanks to this far too short thread)

Coin Coin Chapter Two is astonishing.

Yes! Good interview in the Wire the other month too.

Definitely one of my favourites this year

this rules

This is a strange and wonderful album.

i haven't heard any of her recordings; sounds like i need to.
saw her perform earlier this year and it was great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwcgTY2JjhA

this is great.

Part 3! Streaming!

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jan/19/matana-roberts-coin-coin-chapter-three-river-run-thee-exclusive-album-stream

huh

leaked a few weeks ago, it's great.

She has released another record this year. It's two tracks of just her on the saxophone, very stark stuff, and it's great.

http://www.relativepitchrecords.com/releases/rpr1036.html

yeah that one's good

going to see her in a fairly small venue in a couple of weeks, excited about that one

Thinking of going to see her in a couple of weeks. Has anyone seen her recently? Or know what this tour may entail? E.g., just her and a sax? I can't seem to find much info online. Her albums are great - curious to hear how they translate to a live performance, or if her live shows are more improvisational.

I saw her a few weeks ago, opening for Supersilent in NYC. The show I saw was just her and the saxophone, though she sometimes brings pedals, video projections, etc. If it's just her, expect short improvised pieces and plenty of audience engagement - personal stories and monologues which lead into and out of the music, and she sometimes does this thing where she gets the audience to hum at a specific pitch, conducting them up and down with arm gestures and using that hum as the basis for improvisation. It's a lot of fun and really cool.

Cool, that sounds great! I'm going to try and go.

I just got hip to "Coin Coin" in the last few months, probably becuz if you had told me that one of the best jazz records in recent memory was coming out on Constellation my eyes would have rolled so hard they would have fallen out of my head and out into the street where they would have tripped people, but so the record is amazing.

https://dpi.studioxx.org/en/no/31-music-and-politics/other-side-coin-coin-matana-roberts’-river-run-thee

Chapter 4 coming in October.

I saw Matana in a church in east London yesterday evening. It was mostly a modular synth set with a few bits of organ and some (not enough!) bluesy sax. It wasn't entirely successful: the bed she set up wasn't that interesting and the weird sound mix meant we couldn't really hear her. Some of this was intentional 'drowning' of voices (I think) but it was an odd set-up. There was a section where she started a call-and-response, with the audience intoning 'our souls'; this being east London, it quite quickly became 'arseholes', which detracted from the mood a bit. Who knows - perhaps it was meant to be a Derek and Clive tribute?

Short version: lovely venue, a pleasure to be in her company, not entirely successful.

https://matana-roberts.bandcamp.com/album/coin-coin-chapter-four-memphis

friday!

I like what I've heard from it

so ready for this!

I'm listening to Gris Gris by Dr. John for the first time in a while and I'd forgotten just how much Coin Coin Chapter 1 calls back to this record. "Danse Kalinda Ba Doom" is the obvious one but there are bits from "Danse Fambeaux" in there as well.

I'm listening to Gris Gris by Dr. John for the first time in a while and I'd forgotten just how much Coin Coin Chapter 1 calls back to this record. "Danse Kalinda Ba Doom" is the obvious one but there are bits from "Danse Fambeaux" in there as well.

I'm not going mad right - the references are pretty obvious?

I’ll be able to give a close listen once the long weekend is over…

It's not an exact quote, but I think you're right that 'I Am' refers to Kalinda- it makes too much sense to be a coincidence.

Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the Garden... is coming out at the end of this month and it's fucking incredible.

https://matana-roberts.bandcamp.com/album/coin-coin-chapter-five-in-the-garden

Pretty stunning list of personnel:

Matana Roberts (composer / horns / harmonicas / aux percussion / vocal / wordspeak)
Mike Pride (drums / aux percussion / vocal)
Matt Lavelle (alto clarinet / pocket trumpet / tin whistle / vocal)
Stuart Bogie (bass clarinet / clarinet / tin whistle / vocal)
Cory Smythe (piano / vocal / tin whistle)
Mazz Swift (violin / vocal/ tin whistle)
Darius Jones (alto sax / tin whistle / vocal)
Ryan Sawyer (drums / aux percussion / vocal)
Gitanjali Jain (text collage)
Kyp Malone (synths)
Jaimie Branch (Courage 1983-2022)

I can't even describe it. Listening to it on headphones is like having your brain hijacked and hearing someone whisper their (nightmarish) story directly into your mind. I'm including it in my Stereogum column though it is in no way a "jazz" record — it's ultra complex theatrical art that has a few saxophone solos.

It's a stunning record, perhaps the best in the series to date. To declare an interest, I wrote the promotional copy, so I had the privilege of hearing it early and talking to Matana in depth about it. But I can honestly say that it's an incredible piece of work. The interplay between Matana and Darius Jones is incredibly powerful - he brings the really raw, expressive stuff, while Matana is more lyrical. It's interesting you say it's not a jazz record as such. Matana was keen to emphasise its roots in new music practice, the influence of Cage, Cunningham, Amacher et al. Hopefully that's something that they'll get to elaborate on in forthcoming interviews.

can't wait

Love their new album and loved the Tone Glow interview: https://toneglow.substack.com/p/tone-glow-108-matana-roberts