Coin Coin Chapter Three: River Run Thee by Matana Roberts

Matana Roberts is one of the most acclaimed, socio-politically conscious and aesthetically intrepid avant-jazz practitioners of the 21st century. The critical accolades for her multi-chapter Coin Coin work place her at the vanguard of stylistic innovation and radicalization, while confirming the deep substance and soul that guides her compositional agenda. Roberts has long employed the phrase "panoramic sound quilting" to describe Coin Coin, and with this third chapter in the series she implements this metaphor most overtly, creating a sound art tapestry from field recordings, loop and effects pedals, and spoken word recitations, alongside her saxophone and singing voices. Coin Coin Chapter Three: river run thee unfolds as an uninterrupted album-length flow, in what Roberts calls "a fever dream" of sonic material, inspired by a solitary research-based road trip Roberts took through the American South in early 2014. Fragments of traditional song are the album's main touchstones, with Roberts' singing voice riding atop waves of radiophonic texture, layered spoken word, and an often dislocated, wandering horn. It is the first explicitly solo work in the Coin Coin series, and a fascinating extension of the cycle; yet another adventurous, socially engaged definition of what Jazz can mean in this day and age.

8.2 / 10

The third installment of Matana Roberts' planned 12-record series COIN COIN, intended as her personal and political exploration of African-American history, is a seamless solo improvisation for electronics, multi-tracked voices, and saxophones. These 46 minutes are magnetic and inescapable.

6 / 10

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6 / 10

This release is the third in Matana Roberts' Coin Coin series, which explores her African American history through words and music and extensive travel and research into her family journey.

90 %

[xrr rating=4.5/5]Long after jazz ceased to be a propulsive force in either popular music or intellectual esoterica, Matana Roberts broke out in 2011 with one of the most ambitious projects that the genre had seen in decades, rivaled only by the recent epics from established legend Wadada Leo Smith.