The internationally renowned composer, bandleader, saxophonist and sound experimentalist Matana Roberts has been praised as a “giant talent” and a spokesperson for a new, politically aware jazz scene.”

Matana Roberts was born in Chicago, where together with bassist Josh Abrams and drummer Chad Taylor she founded the trio Sticks and Stones. The band frequently performed at one of Chicago’s oldest jazz clubs, Velvet Lounge. After releasing two albums, Matana Roberts moved to New York where she is currently based.

Matana Roberts is probably best known for Coin Coin, an ongoing music project which over several chapters explores America’s history through improvisation, touching on themes such as narrative, history, ancestry, memory, and political expression. With an elegant sensitivity and vivid imagery she lets everything come forward, from explicit scenes of violence to more hushed, nostalgic images of life in the American South, fragment after fragment. Her saxophone takes centre stage, but Matana Roberts’ vocals—no matter if song, chant, or spoken word—establish the emotions and intensify the impression.

Coin Coin started in 2011 and so far three of the twelve planned chapters have been released, but she has already received several prestigious awards for the project, such as the Alpert Award In The Arts and the Doris Duke Impact Award.