With her Coin Coin project Matana Roberts has become everybody’s darling, from papers like the New York Times or the Los Angeles Times to jazz magazines and radio programs, even to media beyond the jazz cosmos like the Rolling Stone, SPIN or pitchfork.com. Everyone is rightfully awestruck by “Gens deCouleur Libres” and “Mississippi Moonchile” (including us).
But apart from her longtime project Matana Roberts has always been involved in smaller groups - like her trio with Josh Abrams (b) and Chad Taylor (dr), her quartet with Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet), Thomson Kneeland (b) and Thomas Fujiwara (dr) or her band with Jeff Parker (g), Josh Abrams (b) and Frank Rosaly (dr) – all of them not as spectacular as Coin Coin but nevertheless absolutely interesting since Roberts concentrates more on improvisation while Coin Coin rather focuses on a compositional element.
For this album Roberts has formed a new trio with Canadian musicians Sam Shalabi (g) and Nicolas Caloia (b), both active members of Montreal’s prospering scene. Their “Feldspar” album is named after a group of minerals, the name feldspar derives from the German words Feld (field) and Spath (a rock that does not contain any ore) – like this formation does not have any drums.
The band mainly delves into harsh avant-garde idioms, sometimes the musicians seem to be alienated from each other, as if they would confirm an old prejudice against free jazz that the musicians only play for themselves. However, Roberts’ always keeps a strong element of melody present, in “Spinel” her sax lines are deeply rooted in folk blues melodies (and she does not deny Albert Ayler, Steve Lacy and Fred Anderson as main influences). In general bass and guitar provide edgy textures and colorful dots for Roberts’ discreet melodies, as if the three were painting a picture, the guitar providing the ground coat, the sax being responsible for the strokes of the brush and the bass for the dots (as in “Opal”).
Highlights of this album are the bookending tracks: On “Orpiment” Shalabi provides a Thurston-Moore-like guitar, Matana’s warm and gentle sax creeps into the track very shyly in front of the guitar feedback and Caloia’s bowed bass, she seems to be looking for a point of contact with bass and guitar. Only at the end the three instruments seem to entwine with each other, dancing madly, their limbs distorted.
The title track (the last one on this album) begins with bass and sax displaying a melancholic layout, while Shalabi’s atonal guitar is playing almost against the others, as if he wanted to disturb the dialogue - but Roberts and Caloia resist and answer back. It is a heavy, escalating dispute, at the end everybody seems to be exhausted from the fight in this long aftermath. - Martin Schray
An exceptional improvised meeting between American saxophonist Matana Roberts, known for her Coin Coin project—Chapter One: Gens de Couleur Libres and Chapter Two: Mississippi Moonchile (Constellation, 2011 and 2013)—and two left-of-center, free improvisers from the Canadian, Montreal scene—guitarist Sam Shalabi, known for his Middle-Eastern-tinged band Shalabi Effect and his orchestral works with Land of Kush, and double bassist Nicolas Caloia, who leads the improvising Ratchet Orchestra.
Feldspar, titled after Earth's rock formations, was recorded in studio in Montreal in 2011 and features the conflicting approaches of Roberts on one hand and Shalabi and Caloia on the other. Roberts improvised articulations are rooted in the blues and modern jazz legacies and search for a linear structure that stresses a strong theme, often a highly melodic one, while Shalabi and Caloia aim for associative, abstract textures based on patient shaping of sounds. On the first two pieces the improvised pieces are developed in two different, subversive courses with minimal effort to form an emphatic interplay. Only on the third piece "Galena" do these versatile musicians manage to establish a common ground for an intense free improvisation that gains power and volition as it progresses. The extended breathing techniques of Roberts, as well as her spare bluesy lines, match the sustained bow work of Caloia and the thick, metallic lines of Shalabi.
On the quiet and slow "Anatase" and "Opal" Shalabi and Caloia ornament Roberts spare bluesy flights with shifting pulse and dark, thorny guitar lines, injecting elements of tension and risk taking to her leisured improvisations. "Cinnabar" features Shalabi contrasting the gentle sax voice of Roberts with cyclical, metallic sounds, while Caloia frames this sonic confrontation with a steady pulse.
The last, album-titled piece is the second where the three resourceful improvisers agree on a patient and ethereal course. Shalabi's light Middle-Eastern lines match the soulful playing of Roberts and both rely on the powerful pulse of Caloia. - Eyal Haruveni
Tracks
1. Orpiment
2. Spinel
3. Galena
4. Anatase
5. Opal
6. Cinnabar
7. Feldspar
MATANA ROBERTS alto saxophone
NICOLAS CALOIA contrabass
SAM SHALABI guitar
Recorded December 8, 2011 at Studio Hotel2Tango, Montreal
Tour De Bras - TDB9008CD (Canada)