Matana Roberts

Matana is pronounced ( mah-tah-nah). It is the hebrew word for the term "gift".
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“Matana is definitely nondescriptive. She’s not a lady, she’s not a man; she’s just a being…”
Jazz Times

“Roberts is a deep traditionalist who looks beyond the rigid distinctions and definitions of musical style”
Chicago Defender

“…alto saxophonist and clarinetist Matana Roberts –add this name to the frustratingly short list of excellent, female reed players…”
All About Jazz

“…Roberts is a fluid, elegant player who rejects the star soloist approach of many a saxophonist….”
BBC Jazz

“just as O’Keeffe was a pioneering female modernist, Roberts is in a class all by herself…”
Rochester City News

“Matana Roberts makes a major statement.”
Jazz Improv Magazine

“The sound of Matana Roberts’ alto sax spans jazz her-story, from its roots in New Orleans, through the swinging ‘30s-40s, to the New Thing.”
All About Jazz

"...Her music is expressive, high-minded and serious, but where it should be fearsome, it comes out as joyous and affirmative."
Manchester Evening News

"she has become an eloquent, dramatic tone-warping free-jazz artist, right out of Ayler's anti-bebop tradition."
Guardian

" a lyrical spiritual essence that recalls the voices of reed players Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, Eric Dolphy, and others—one of profound soulfulness, passion and purity. Yet the embodiment of Roberts is devoid of mimicry or pretense, because she possesses her own identity..."
All About Jazz

"Ms. Roberts, with her bold and declarative saxophone sound, seemed to be striving not toward virtuosity, but a kind of vocalization."
NY Times

"one to watch in 2008"
Jazzwise

" Roberts confirms that the talent in waiting should wait no longer….an artist with deep roots in several improvising traditions who has nonetheless absorbed the music of the machine age without plugging into an y facile clichés”
Echoes Magazine

“sounding much like Pharaoh Sanders hypnotic spiritual riffing spiked with the intuitive abandon of Wayne Shorter and Ornette Coleman but laced with visceral blues energy, her mesmerizing sound delves deep into her African American heritage.”
Time Out LONDON

“ Roberts is a rising star…”
WIRE

“An early candidate for breakthrough artist of the year”
METRO

“Roberts metamorphoses her music into living, breathing biography”
Time Out CHICAGO

“{one of the} the brightest lights of the new Chicago wave…”
The Wall Street Journal

“Ms. Roberts isn’t just mildly curious to expand her medium: She seems driven to do it.”
NY Times

"... she'll blow your doors off."
Chicago Tribune

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Extensive Bio and Press Kit Available upon request