Matana Roberts blows ecstatic jazz sax as hard as Albert Ayler, but can carry a tune so soulful, you almost expect Billie Holiday to breeze in over it. With her funky dreads, thrift-store style and romantic history of busking in New York subways, could this be the woman to sell good, old-fashioned American avant-jazz to the masses? Roberts's first high-profile release hooks her up with collaborators from Chicago's jazz aristocracy and members of the post-rock group Tortoise's extended family, most notably the guitarist Jeff Parker, who lays languid unresolved chords and scratchy free-music fills behind her elegantly distressed playing. The first essential release of the year.
Central Control International CCI006CD