On Chicago’s lakefront one breezy August night in 2014—five days after a Missouri police officer named Darren Wilson shot and killed an unarmed black teenager named Michael Brown—the thirty-nine-year-old saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and “panoramic sound quilter” Matana Roberts led a nine-piece pickup band in a free outdoor concert at a public band shell. At the outset, Roberts ran down a lengthy list of dedications. She got applause when she named Chicago jazz legends and laughs when she shouted out entire sides of the city. When she reached the names of four slain black youth, culminating with a pointed “Mike Brown,” the audience went silent. Roberts turned to the band and swirled her flattened hand to conduct them in, and they were off and running.

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