20–22 February 2026
Over three nights at Cafe OTO, three singular voices:
Matana Roberts, Neil Charles, and Mark Sanders come together for a rare meeting of equals. No leader, no set plan: just an open exchange between sound, rhythm, and breath. Expect raw invention and deep listening as these boundary-defying artists shape something new each night: music born in the moment, never to be repeated.
Matana (mah-tah-Nah) Roberts (they/them) is an internationally documented multidisciplinary artist,composer, saxophonist,and sound experimentalist.
Roberts works in many contexts and mediums, including improvisation, sound art, dance, poetry, and theater. they made two classic records as a core member of the Sticks And Stones quartet in the early 2000s and has gone on to release a diverse body of solo and ensemble work under their own name on a variety of international record labels. They are perhaps best known for their acclaimed Coin Coin project, a multi-chapter sound work of “panoramic sound quilting” that aims to expose the mystical roots of American creative expression while maintaining a deep and substantive engagement with global narrativity, history, community and political expression within improvisatory structures. Constellation began documenting the Coin Coin project in 2011 and has released the first 5 of a projected twelve album-length “chapters” to date.
They have been invited to teach, lecture, run workshops and/or take up artistic residencies in countless places under a variety of conditions and with diverse communities over the past two plus decades.
Neil Charles is one of the most in-demand musicians on the scene, with a huge array of credits to his name, including Jack DeJohnette, the Sun Ra Arkestra, Mingus Big Band, Jose James, Jerry Dammers, Courtney Pine, and Terence Blanchard. His own projects have included Zed U, with Shabaka Hutchings and Tom Skinner, and the more recent ensemble Dark Days, dealing with the work of James Baldwin. Most recently, he has been heard across the international scene with Gabriels. As well as being known as a bass player with a huge sound and immaculate sense of time, he is equally renowned as a producer, going by the alias Ben Marc.
"Bassist Neil Charles went flying, from the first moment filling the space with the sound of his mighty wings Henning Bolte," – Europe Jazz Media Chart
Mark has worked with many greats of the British, European and American free jazz improvised music scene including Roscoe Mitchell, Roswell Rudd, Evan Parker, John Butcher, Henry Grimes, Elaine Mitchener, Wadada Leo Smith, Myra Melford, Charles Gayle , Sirone and William Parker
He has also played with Jah Wobble, Harold Budd, Bill Laswell, Christian Marclay, International Contemporary Ensemble, Ilan Volkov and The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
He is a member of many working groups including duos with Nicole Mitchell and Rhodri Davies, Neil Charles' 'Dark Days' with Cleveland Watkiss & Pat Thomas, 'Last Dream of the Morning' with John Butcher & John Edwards, 'Shifa' with Rachel Musson and Pat Thomas and 'Sarost' with Larry Stabbins & Paul Rogers.
As an educator he has taught improvisation at many universities around the country as a lecturer and guest tutor.
Mark has played concerts and festivals around the world and appears on over 220 CD and Vinyl releases.
Mark was a recipient of the Paul Hamlyn Award for Artists 2024
"Drop the needle on the first track — or any track for that matter — and the first thing one is bound to notice is the amazing percussion skills of Mark Sanders" – Peter Thelen... Exposé
"Mark is just incredible and immensely diverse, he is at the center of "Kwingyaw" and it is difficult to tell what he is doing to get some of these sounds." – Bruce L Gallenter, Downtown Music Gallery, NY
