Matana Roberts

“Live In London”

(Central Control CC1014CD)

Originally recorded for a broadcast on the BBC’s flagship jazz programme “Jazz On 3”, “Live In London” captures a remarkable night at the city’s intimate Vortex venue featuring American saxophonist Matana Roberts and a stellar London based trio featuring pianist Robert Mitchell, bassist Tom Mason and drummer Chris Vatalaro.

With no time for rehearsals Roberts and her UK colleagues were essentially “winging it” across two sets of uncompromising and often challenging material. It’s not clear whether everything they played on that night back in 2009 has been documented here, and indeed much of the music has already been broadcast, but the six items bristle with an energy and intensity forged in the crucible of spontaneous creativity. It’s not quite free improv, there’s a clear structure to all six tunes, which include a brace of very different covers alongside four Roberts originals, but there is plenty room for improvisation and joyous self expression.

Roberts is a remarkable young woman. Born in Chicago she was exposed to the music of Albert Ayler at a very early age, precocious listening for such a youngster. Ayler’s influence permeates what Roberts does now but she’s no mere copyist. With recordings such as this and her incendiary début “The Chicago Project” she channels Ayler’s legacy into something fresh and contemporary that draws on rock and hip hop elements as well as jazz.

The album opens with the quartet’s near half hour version of the tune “My Sistr” by the Canadian singer songwriter Chad Jones aka Frankie Sparrow. Roberts has strong links with Canada and this choice is a reflection of that. The piece begins with Roberts’ unaccompanied alto, joined first by the patter of drums and subsequently by bass and piano. Much of the rest of the track is taken up with a free wheeling dialogue, one largely instigated by Roberts but one to which her UK colleagues respond with aplomb. Mitchell, a pianist of prodigious talent is the ideal foil for Roberts, a player with the chops and intelligence to think on his feet. He was recommended to the saxophonist by no less a figure than pianist Vijay Iyer, producer of “The Chicago Project”. Mason and Vatalaro are correspondingly responsive, flexible and intelligent with the bassist sometimes making judicious use of the bow. During the tune’s quieter, more lyrical moments he comes up with a delightful plucked solo that develops into a lovely duet with Roberts. This acts as a bridge to the second half of the piece which includes a dazzling solo from the excellent Mitchell that evokes moans of delight from the bandstand. There’s still time for plenty more blues inflected saxophone wailing from Roberts that reveals her debt to Ayler and the 60’s free jazz movement but with plenty of dynamic shifts to keep it interesting.

The on the night announcements have largely been edited out so the record segues into Roberts’ “Pieces Of We” almost immediately, beginning with a fertile exchange of slippery, mercurial dialogue between alto and piano. With the eventual addition of bass and drums an attractive melody with a supple underlying groove emerges, this subsequently proving the jumping off point for more spirited group improvising. There’s a definite symmetry to this piece which ends as it began with Vatalaro sitting out as the dynamic changes again.

Roberts likes to build from simple beginnings. “Glass” also develops out of unaccompanied sax with Roberts subsequently entering into dialogue with the responsive Chris Vatalaro at the drums. Mason then adds an element of structure before the sparky theme kicks in allowing Roberts to blow powerfully above the trio’s odd meter grooves. But Roberts’ music is unpredictable, there are plenty more stylistic and dynamic shifts before the end including the closing dialogue for just bass and piano.

Roberts’ “Turn It Around” features unfettered improvising that sometimes recalls the style of John Coltrane. There are quieter episodes too, the first featuring Mason’s grainy arco bass alongside Mitchell’s delicate piano chording. This later expands to a group dialogue as first Roberts and then Vatalaro get involved.

The quartet put a thoroughly contemporary slant on Duke Ellington’s “Oska T”, the freely improvised introductory stages eventually mutating into Ellington’s catchy theme. This subsequently provides the springboard for another marvellous Mitchell solo. The tune features some of the most joyous and accessible playing of the set as Roberts’ alto wails and soars.

The closing “Exchange” has a loaded title, referring to the street where Roberts grew up in Chicago. But it also refers to the kind of cultural exchange that brings her to to London to work with British based musicians, plus of course the exchange of musical ideas between those musicians. Roberts’ solo sax intro leads to a brief drum feature for the supremely adaptable Vatalaro. Roberts then thanks the audience, a rare acknowledgement of the fact that this is a live recording, before taking up her horn again to close the evening on a gently elegiac note after the high octane improvising to be heard on much of the rest of the record. There’s an almost spiritual air to the piece, a kind of Coltrane-esque tone poem.

“Live In London” is a valuable document that demonstrates what a gifted improviser Roberts is. Her London based colleagues also come out of it with much credit, instinctively responding to the mercurial nature of her playing. It’s a shame that much of the talking and applause has been edited out, for there’s often little to suggest that this is a live recording. Although crowd noise can be a distraction on record something of the sense of excitement has been lost here. I’m sure it must have been one hell of a night at a crowded Vortex.

Although the live audience probably didn’t register it the lack of light and shade also represents something of a problem when the music is committed to disc. Roberts’ attack is pretty relentless and her biting Ornette Coleman/Jackie McLean tone filtered through John Coltrane can eventually become a little wearing. It’s not a truly democratic line-up, Roberts definitely dictates the nature of the performance and I’d have liked to have heard more of Mitchell, for variety as much as anything else.

For all this the positives outweigh the negatives. This is challenging stuff,a musical white knuckle ride with plenty to thrill and inspire the listener. Matana Roberts can only get better and similarly the international exposure granted to the UK based players can only help to enhance their reputations.

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