Full Description:

For  her residency  last fall Robert's used it as a performance lab, experimenting/workshopping/ considering conceptual ideas that are the building blocks of her in progress blood narrative COIN COIN.  For tonight’s performance she will be premiering  a piece based off of that exploratory work that will be developed into a chapter  of the series called called DEBT.

This will not be a new  complete chapter of the series, just a consideration of new thoughts she may infuse into the  fuller realized work as a whole somewhere along the way in the 12 part narrative.

Featuring:
Mike Pride, drums+voice
Ryan Sawyer, drums+voice
Gabriel Guererro, piano+voice
Matana Roberts, Saxophone, Clarinet,voice+ processed saxophone+video

debt. ( working title)
noun
1. something that is owed or that one is bound to pay to or perform for another:
2. a liability or obligation to pay or render something.3.the condition of being under such an obligation 4.Theology . an offense requiring reparation; a sin; a trespass.

What really is debt from a historical perspective? Who is  en-debted within historical narrative? What is really owed to debtees to debtors within a historical framework?

history. memory.blood.life.honor.death.lineage.destiny.hope.

Tonight’s performance is dedicated to two organizations: the work of the  NYC  based organization the Rolling Jubilee http://rollingjubilee.org/ and Hope for New York http://hfny.org/hurricane/

In honor  of many of the people made homeless by last year’s Hurricane Sandy, Matana would like to ask everyone in attendance to bring a pair of new socks that will be collected and donated to the organization Hope for New York.

After concert discussion will feature Matana in an open floor discussion regarding ideas explored in tonight’s work in conversation with Laura Hanna - filmmaker + organizer of the Rolling Jubilee/Strike Debt. 

Matana (m(a)-ta-na) Roberts; internationally documented, chicago born, sound experimentalist. main instrument: alto saxophone. working in various mediums of performance inquiry; has created alongside visionary experimentalists of this time period in various areas of improvisation, dance, poetry, visual art, theater; as a saxophonist, documented on sound recordings as collaborator, side woman and leader. some recent work focused on the place/problem of memory/tradition as recognized, deciphered, deconstructed, interrogated through radical modes of sound communication, alternative styles of musical notation, and multi genres of improvisation; holds two advanced degrees in music performance. based in new york city.

http://www.matanaroberts.com/

Matana Robert’s performance is made possible with support from Jerome Foundation.

 

Full Description:

For  her residency at Roulette, Saxophonist/Composer Matana Roberts will be using the evening as a performance lab, experimenting/workshopping/considering conceptual ideas that are the building blocks of her work in progress, blood narrative COIN COIN as well as holding a Q&A about her practice. This will not be a new chapter of the series, just a consideration of new thoughts she may infuse into the work as a whole somewhere along the way.

Support for this program provided by the Jerome Foundation.

"The term "coin coin" is many sided in references here. To sum it up briefly, I'm trying to combine ideas of Location/Place-- as in the french definition of "coin" ---"corner" of my world.....Value--what is the cost of human space specifically as it relates to american culture and idea of "cost"... Legend/Oral tradition/Memory as it may or may not pertain to human DNA and the confusion it can play in the rendering of "tradition" , and ideas surrounding "Personal Politic" the metaphysical linkage/contradiction between difference vs. identity and how it relates, or does not relate to my "place" in the world as a sound explorer. Lastly, it is also a small shout out to snippets of my own ancestral lore." Matana Roberts

Matana (m(a)-ta-na) Roberts; internationally documented, chicago born saxophonist/improviser/ composer/sound conceptualist; working in various mediums of   performance inquiry; has created alongside visionary experimentalists of this time period in various areas of improvisation, dance, poetry, visual art, theater; as a saxophonist, documented on sound recordings as collaborator, side woman and leader. some recent work focused on the place/problem of memory/tradition as recognized, deciphered, deconstructed, interrogated through radical modes of sound communication, alternative styles of musical notation, and multi genres of improvisation; based in new york city.

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Trumpeter and composer Roy Campbell's Akhenaten performs music from their recent Aum Fidelity release, Live at the Vision Festival 12, with vibraphonist Bryan Carrott, bassist Hilliard "Hill" Greene, and drummer Michael Wimberly. Surprise special guest to be announced.

Saxophonist and composer Matana Roberts presents her compositional configuration Illumination, based on ongoing research related to the questions, history, and conundrums of the universal creative act of dreams. Featuring cornetist Graham Haynes, pianist Gabriel Guerrero, harpist Shelley Burgon, and drummer Damion Reid.

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Matana Roberts' ILLUMINATION



Matana Roberts-- saxophone, JD Allen -- tenor saxophone, Vijay Iyer-- piano, Liberty Ellman-- guitar
Thomas Morgan-- bass, Damion Reid-- drums



Last year the Chicago born, Brooklyn based, AACM saxophonist Matana Roberts released to much acclaim THE CHICAGO PROJECT, a recording of dynamic compositions that paid homage to her southside windy city roots. This year she is working on a a set of soundscapes to be recorded that pays homage to her big apple wanderings. Interpreted by a band of one of a kind nyc sound warriors, ILLUMINATION, is a collection of soundpaintings that testify to why any artist would chose to live in New York in the first place. A city unlike any other, with an artistic spirit unlike any other. An Illumination in sound, space,real time. A testament to the tenacity of the creative human spirit.



Matana Roberts: Saxophonist/ Improviser/Composer/21st Century Sound Conceptualist Griot



Brooklyn based sound artist 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 nominee and recipient of national commissions, residencies and awards, has appeared as a collaborator on recordings and performances in the U.S., Europe, and Canada.She is an avid freelancer on a wide array of artistic projects, and has played alongside some of the most intriguing creative sound visionaries spanning across genres of this time period. www.matanaroberts.com

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Matana Roberts' BLACK MAN

One of the first "picture book" texts that Saxophonist Matana Roberts was given to read as a child was Joel Augustus Roger's Africa's Gift to America. The first edition originally published in 1961 was created by a man who spent over 50 years devoting his life to research that showed that people of African origin had a history that was an inseperable part of the history of mankind. The quinteseential rennasaince man, J.A. Rogers was an artist, Pullman porter, journalist, linguist, author and scholar of the highest degree. Though unable to afford to recieve a college education, he created his own scholarship through through a voracious reading habit that allowed him to expand his sometimes controversial documentation of the contributions of black folk to America. His single major mission in life was to affirm the humanity of the African personality, so that young people would have a document to inspire them not to be ashamed of their cultural legacy. Matana Roberts' father was a recipient of this documentation in his youth and was able to pass on this positive piece of important documentation to his children. And so it was.


In this age of fifty bullet armed force brutality strategies =800Saxophonist Matana Roberts has decided to pay homage to the positive role of black manhood in her life and her music. Based on the works J.A. Rogers, as well as her own personal research into the minds of men of the diasporic persuasion that she has admired and been inspired by she is using this as an artistic backdrop for reflection that she will piece together in a celebration of sound. Written for mini brass band, language ensemble and movement master.

Chapter 5 of the Coin Coin Continuum.

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Multi-reedist and composer Matt Bauder has been creating inspired and imaginative music since his early days in Ann Arbor, MI in the mid nineties. Now based in NYC, he also has been an active member of the creative music scenes in Chicago and Berlin. Dusted Magazine calls his music "the ideal collaboration between Morton Feldman and Jimmy Guiffre - the intersection of the long form composition and jazz's improvisational technique." He has studied, performed, and recorded with some of the major figures in modern music including Anthony Braxton, Alvin Lucier, Ellery Eskelin, Ken Vandermark, Rob Mazurek, Warn Devever, and Neil Micheal Haggerty.

PAPER GARDENS is an extended work stemming from the most basic of ideas. The unison and the cluster serve as springboards for compositional and improvisational expansion. Roles of the strings and reeds are swapped freely from foreground to background, creating mysterious textures that can as easily turn on a dime as they can morph subconsciously into the unexpected. Matana Roberts (alto saxophone, clarinet), Loren Dempster (cello) and Reuben Radding (bass), three singular voices in experimental music, have been performing Paper Gardens with Bauder for the past year, honing in on the delicate balance and interaction that the piece requires.

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Saxophonist/composer Matana Roberts presents CoinCoin:Installation 1, the first performance of her in-progress musical narrative, which explores the defining moments of one people's shared history using the traditions of jazz- and improvisation-inspired music. Through original compositions and various ensemble configurations, Roberts pulls together tales from 7 generations and 4 continents of her own colorful ancestral lore in order to paint a musical portrait of an extraordinary, yet classic African American history. With Hill Greene (bass), Jessica Pavone (viola), Daniel Levin (cello) and Mazz Swift (violin), Daniel Givens (laptop and slide projector). Commissioned by Roulette with support from the Jerome Foundation.