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Matana Robertsbiography
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 and a member of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) 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 United States, 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 (led by Marty Erhlich).
She has also released recordings of her own ensembles.
In 2008 she released a homage project to her hometown entitled The Chicago Project, on Barry Adamson's Central Control International, 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 and sound artist Daniel Given's Day Clear/Day Dark.
She is currently continuing to work hard on her 12 segment blood narrative series COIN COIN, her solo series ART4YOUR EAR, her self published 'zine of writings about her life as an artist FAT RAGGED 6, and a new ensemble configuration out of the UK called PANTHER, featuring a group of like minded forward thinking sound makers, that premiered in March 2009.
Matana 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.
She currently resides in New York city.
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