Matana Roberts Biography
Matana Roberts is an American visual artist, sound experimentalist, jazz saxophonist and composer based in New York City. She was an active member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). The Jazz Journalists Association selected Roberts as a finalist nominee for the 2008 “Up and Coming Musician of the Year” award.
Matana was born in Chicago, Illinois. She was brought up the city’s South Side and studied classical clarinet during her youth. Not much is really known of her family at the moment. We will update this information soon. Coming to her educational background, Not details have been disclosed on her educational background.
She formed a trio, Sticks, and Stones, with bassist Josh Abrams and drummer Chad Taylor, with whom she regularly performed at the Velvet Lounge. In 2002, Roberts moved to New York, initially busking in subways and publishing a zine, Fat Ragged, about her experiences.
Roberts is the composer of Coin Coin, a multichapter musical work-in-progress exploring themes of history, memory, and ancestry. Roberts performed at the London Jazz Festival in 2007. In 2008, Central Control released Roberts’ The Chicago Project. The album, produced by Vijay Iyer, includes performances by members of Prefuse 73 and Tortoise along with AACM saxophonist Fred Anderson.
In January 2010, Roberts was the guest curator at The Stone. Roberts has been chosen by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform at the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival that he curated in March 2012 in Minehead, England. Roberts received a 2013 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award.
Roberts held a residency at the Whitney Museum of American Art in the summer of 2015, during which she produced a series of research-based sound works entitled I call America. The following summer, she had a solo show at the Fridman Gallery entitled I Call America II that was presented as an expanded version of the Whitney exhibition
Matana Roberts Age | How Old Is Matana Roberts?
Matana’s exact birthdate is still unknown at the moment but it is believed that she was born in 1975. As of 2019, She is 43-44 years old.
Matana Roberts Height | How Tall Is Matana Roberts?
Information on her body measurements is currently unavailable at the moment. This information will be updated soon.
Matana Roberts Husband | Matana Roberts Married
Matana is married to her husband “Seb Rochford” a Scottish drummer. Seb is of Indian descent through the side of his mother who was Anglo Indian. Rochford has played drums for Polar Bear, Acoustic Ladyland, Basquiat Strings, Oriole, Menlo Park, Ingrid Laubrock Quintet, Bojan Zulfikarpasic’s Tetraband, and Sons of Kemet. He worked extensively with Joanna MacGregor and Andy Sheppard and leads the band Fulborn Teversham and has an improvising duo with Leafcutter John. He also has a solo project called Room of Katinas.
Matana Roberts Net Worth
Her net worth is currently still under review. This information will be updated soon.
Matana Roberts Coin Coin
Matana is an internationally renowned composer, bandleader, saxophonist, sound experimentalist and mixed-media practitioner. Roberts works in many contexts and mediums, including improvisation, dance, poetry, and theater. She made two records as a core member of the Sticks And Stones trio in the early 2000s and has gone on to release a diverse body of solo and ensemble work under her own name on Constellation and Central Control over the past decade.
She is perhaps best known for her acclaimed Coin Coin project, a multi-chapter work of “panoramic sound quilting” that aims to expose the mystical roots and channel the intuitive spirit-raising traditions of American creative expression while maintaining a deep and substantive engagement with narrativity, history, community and political expression within improvisatory musical structures. Constellation began documenting the Coin Coin project in 2011 and has released the first three of a projected twelve album-length chapters to date, with a fourth chapter arriving this October.
Matana Roberts London
Roberts, known for her exploration of African American history through her COIN COIN series of records, is a new arrival in London. The city has always been a place of coming and going, just as its largest forest had, with ancient trackways running through the Iron Age forts at its heart.
In a special commission for The Peoples Forest, Roberts delves into the rich history of Epping Forest and connects it to the work of writer Ursula K Le Guin. Born 90 years ago this autumn, Le Guin’s stories The Word For World Is Forest and Vaster Than Empires Yet Slower were profound meditations on colonialism, travel, belonging, and the human intersection with the natural world.
The commissioned musical performance will take place in the ancient St Mary’s Church Walthamstow, which was once surrounded by the trees of Epping Forest. Forest and Fantasy is part of The People’s Forest season – a series of events exploring our relationship with Epping Forest, interrogating the deep bond we have with forests and woodland, and how this relationship is culturally determined. Part of Waltham Forest, London Borough of Culture 2019
Matana Roberts Albums
- Lines for Lacy (2006)
- The Calling (2007)
- The Chicago Project (2008)
- Live in London (2011)
- COIN COIN Chapter One: Gens de couleur libres (2011)
- COIN COIN Chapter Two: Mississippi Moonchile (2013)
- COIN COIN Chapter Three: River Run Thee (2015)
- COIN COIN Chapter Four: Memphis (2019)
Matana’s Songs
- All Is Written
- Song for Eulalie
- Pov Piti
- How Much Would You Cost?
- Libation for Mr. Brown: Bid Em In…
- Nema, Nema, Nema
- Clothed to the Land, Worn by the Sea
- Kersaia
- As Years Roll By
- Always Say Your Name
- Rise
- Amma Jerusalem School
- I Am
- Was The Sacred Day
- Woman Red Racked
- Come Away
- Responsory
- Dreamer of Dreams
- River Ruby Dues
- Twelve Sighed
- Exchange
- Thanks Be You
- Humility Draws Down Blue
- This Land Is Yours
- Spares Of The World
- Lulla/Bye
- Thrills
- The Good Book Says
- Lesson
- J.P.
- For What Worth
- Humility Draws Down New
- Birdhouse 1
- Confessor Haste
- The Labor Of Their Lips
- With Me Seek
- Opal
- All Nations
- A Single Man o’War
- South by West
- Nomra
- Birdhouse 3
- Love Call
- Mountain Moves
- Untitled N.1
- Birdhouse 2
- Glass
- Benediction
- Oska T
Matana YouTube
Matana’s Twitter
Tweets by MatanaRoberts