Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Jon Irabagon: Foxy
Jon Irabagon: Foxy
ByIt was Rollins who first used the extended solo, improvising continuously over Ray Brown's bass and Shelly Manne's drums. The practice arose not out of a sense of dominance or ego, but out of a genuine sense of extending a solo in counterpoint with the bass and drums. It made Rollins' tenor seem to tower over the power of sound. Tenor madness, not just the title, but the style of blowing the mind came next. Now, Irabagon picks up his tenor and not only pays tribute to Rollins' seminal album, but takes the act of soloing even further. Irabagon breaks the cycle of verse and chorus that typifies the sixteen-bar composition by improvising almost ceaselessly.
His opening salvo can be heard over bass and drums, as it gradually increases in volume, as if it has been going on for some time before the recorder captured the sound. The song morphs into a harmonic extravaganza, with tenor playing a mind-bending and ear-splitting role in breaking down not only melody, but in flowing from one segment to another seamlessly, as the song extends way past the sixteen-bar format. After the first such extension there is seemingly no stopping Irabagon, Altschul and Brendler. Encouraged by the saxophonist, the drummer and bassist explore with lavish changes in rhythm and harmony, the multi-angular approach to the basic song, "Foxy."
The elastic, evolutionary process continues through incarnations such as the racy and contrapuntal "Chicken Poxy," the rhythmically mesmerizing "Hydroxy," and the tantalizing harmony of "Unorthodoxy." Each rattles the cage of convention, deconstructing the melody with harmonic excursions that destroy conventional scales and expectations of consonance. Each also contains rhythmic double-stops and ostinato passages, stepping over quarter notes to make breathtaking leaps over planes that the song occupies. This multidimensional approach keeps the basic song alive at all times. With every change, leap and bound from one end of the saxophone's register to the other, the music comes alive with new parallel reality.
Track Listing
Foxy; Proxy; Chicken Poxy; Boxy; Hydroxy; Biloxi; Tsetse; Unorthodoxy; Epoxy; Roxy; Foxy (Radio Edit); Moxie.
Personnel
Jon Irabagon
saxophone, sopraninoJon Irabagon: tenor saxophone; Peter Brendler: bass; Barry Altschul: drums.
Album information
Title: Foxy | Year Released: 2010 | Record Label: Hot Cup Records
< Previous
Streams of Consciousness Volume Two
Comments
About Jon Irabagon
Instrument: Saxophone, sopranino
Related Articles | Concerts | Albums | Photos | Similar ToTags
Jon Irabagon
CD/LP/Track Review
Raul D'Gama Rose
Braithwaite & Katz Communications
Hot Cup Records
United States
Sonny Rollins
Barry Altschul
Peter Brendler
Ray Brown
Shelly Manne
Foxy