Famed for his performances in the New York City subway system with the free jazz quartet Test, Sabir Mateen plays a passionate yet nuanced tenor as his main ax, but is equally comfortable on alto sax, clarinet, and flute. Mateen is capable of raw, all-out explosion, but frequently displays a wide dynamic range and a subtler side, and sometimes leans toward melodic free-bop. A native of Philadelphia, Mateen made his first recordings on the West Coast with pianist Horace Tapscott's Pan African People's Arkestra in 1980, and also played with Sun Ra, though he never officially joined Ra's band. In 1989, Mateen relocated to New York with prompting from the legendary drummer Sunny Murray, and spent the next few years paying his dues on the avant-garde scene.