MATANA ROBERTS — Coin Coin Chapter Five : In the Garden (2023) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Storyteller, composer, saxophonist, and visual artist Matana Roberts is a dozen years into her visionary Coin Coin project that began in 2011. A canny, provocative, utterly revelatory history of African Americans through history and lineage, it's titled after Marie Thérèse Coincoin, former slave, mother, businesswoman, and activist. Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the Garden (the first of a projected 12 parts) follows previous entries, juxtaposing folk songs and avant jazz, free improv and post-bop, spoken word, noise, and post-rock. Her tentet offers a great variety of sounds, textures, and colors in a complex yet illustrative narrative. This album expressionistically chronicles the tragic aftermath of an ancestor's terminated pregnancy, echoing poignantly across time into the 21st century when the Supreme Court invalidated Roe v. Wade.

Roberts employs an excellent cast that includes clarinetist Stuart Bogie, drummers/percussionists Mike Pride and Ryan Sawyer, saxophonists Darius Jones and Matt Lavelle (who also plays trumpet), violinist Mazz Swift, pianist Cory Smythe, and vocalist/actor Gitanjali Jain (she also appeared on the first volume). Kyp Malone (TV on the Radio) played synths and produced.

"We Said" opens with white noise, shimmering, subdued percussion, and almost indecipherable female voices, creating a backdrop for brass, woodwind, and reed drones before a drum kit and tin whistle carry it out. "Unbeknownst" introduced by modal violins and synths playing a four-note pattern are joined by subdued reeds, winds, and processional snare before Roberts' narrative emerges -- from the point of view of her late ancestor speaking from beyond the pale: "My name is your name/Our name is their name/ And we are named/We remember/ They forget ..." Roberts answers with a mournful alto sax solo. The instrumental "Predestined Confessions" is also an excellent case in point, as is the poetic "How Prophetic," which employs droning horns to introduce a slamming rockist drum kit, post-bop reeds and winds, and driving funk. "Enthralled by Her Curious Blend" melds layered synth tones, chamber strings, and winds under Roberts' absorbing, poignant reflection of a marriage and family beset by cultural and racial pressures, coming apart. "But I Never Heard a Sound So Long" is a choral round based on the plantation lullaby "All the Pretty Little Horses." It's followed by "The Promise," a gorgeous choral piece in multi-part harmony with original lyrics atop traditional liturgical hymns. "Shake My Bones" is wonderfully abstract free jazz with horns, winds, and strings all soloing together in a conversation centered on a rhythmic pattern before merging into a mutant post-bop avant blues. "A(way) Is Not an Option" weds chamber jazz, rockist drumming, and frenetic strings and reeds underscoring the protagonist's harrowing story from beyond the grave. Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the Garden's collision of styles, genres, and individual and group voices are not only welcome, but essential to the process of Roberts engendering dialogue, celebrating difference, and communicating emotions, psychologies, and cultures, all testifying to the import and cultural and artistic achievement of her evolving project.
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Tracklist :
1. We Said (3:31)
2. Different Rings (1:27)
3. Unbeknownst (4:44)
4. Predestined Confessions (4:48)
5. How Prophetic (2:56)
6. A Caged Dance (6:04)
7. I Have Long Been Fascinated (1:59)
8. Enthralled Not by Her Curious Blend (3:56)
9. No Way Chastened (1:16)
10. But I Never Heard a Sound So Long (1:17)
11. The Promise (3:20)
12. Shake My Bones (4:04)
13. A(way) Is Not an Option (5:55)
14. For They Do Not Know (6:56)
15. Others Each (1:22)
16. ...Ain't I. ...Your Mystery Is Our History (4:42)
Credits :
Matana Roberts - Composer, Horns, Harmonica, Percussion, Vocal, Spoken Word
Mike Pride - Drums, Percussion, Vocal
Matt Lavelle - Alto Clarinet, Pocket Trumpet, Tin Whistle, Vocal
Stuart Bogie - Bass Clarinet, Clarinet, Tin Whistle, Vocal
Cory Smythe - Piano, Vocal, Tin Whistle
Mazz Swift - Violin, Vocal, Tin Whistle
Darius Jones - Alto Saxophone, Vocal, Tin Whistle
Ryan Sawyer - Drums, Percussion, Vocal
Kyp Malone - Synthesiser