Coin Coin Chapter One: Gens de Couleur Libres

VINYL FORMAT. Matana Roberts is one of the leading lights of contemporary African-American experimental music, combining her widely recognized gifts as an alto saxophone player and improviser with an intensely engaged re-definition of American Jazz traditions. Matana's Coin Coin project is the centerpiece of this engagement and re-definition: a multi-chapter work that combines conceptual scoring (graphic notation, "chance" strategies), storytelling and historical narrative, performative theatre (personae, costume, multi-media), and a deeply considered channeling of personal ancestry and the "universal" experience of Africans in America. While it may sound trite, we truly feel this music speaks for itself. It rallies adventurous improv, experimental voice and narrative, a wide array of black folkways, and Matana's impassioned lead playing to tremendous emotional and conceptual effect.