New York Live, Ep. 1 - Sabir Mateen

This inaugural episode of the New York Live podcast series features reeds and woodwinds player Sabir Mateen. Mr. Mateen has been a key figure in free jazz since his emergence in the 1970s. Born in Philadelphia in 1951, he first became known as a member of Horace Tapscott’s Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra in Los Angeles in the early 1970s. He later returned to Philadelphia where he played regularly until he moved to New York in 1989. The early years of his work are woefully under-recorded, but Mr. Mateen began to have more recording opportunities from the mid-1990s onwards. He first gained critical attention for his contributions to the band TEST with Daniel Carter, Matthew Heyner, and Tom Bruno from the mid-1990s onwards and has since worked extensively with figures such as Marc Edwards, William Hooker, Raphe Malik, William Parker, Matthew Shipp, Alan Silva, Steve Swell, and the band Earth People, among many others. Mr. Mateen currently lives in Italy. The interview featured in this episode was recorded on October 31, 2023, and was conducted in non-ideal conditions near a construction site with some background noise. However, the story Mr. Mateen tells is vital and is unlike any other.