Jazz Articles about Jon Irabagon

About Jon Irabagon

Album Review

Focus Out è la seconda uscita discografica di Rising Sun, ennesima formazione partorita dalla mente vulcanica del sassofonista Jon Irabagon, da diversi anni figura centrale nella scena più vivace, creativa e imprevedibile del jazz statunitense. Un quartetto acustico/elettrico con i fiocchi che si avvale dell'apporto di musicisti altrettanto creativi e già coinvolti in passati progetti del sassofonista di origini filippine. Come la maggior parte delle incisioni di Irabagon, Focus Out sorprende per la sua organicità a dispetto della varietà di ...

Chats with Cats

The Jazz Learning Innovator: Stephanie Matthews

by B.D. Lenz
May 4, 2026

For many jazz musicians, the focus is often on the stage, the rehearsal room, or the studio. But increasingly, another part of the ecosystem is shaping how the music is created, shared, and experienced: the world of education, community engagement, and creative programming.Stephanie Matthews is at the center of that shift. As Executive Director of A Tribe for Jazz, she has built a platform that approaches jazz not only as an art form, but as a framework for ...

Album Review

Jon Irabagon: Focus Out

Read "Focus Out" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
April 6, 2026

Jon Irabagon remains among the most uncompromising voices in contemporary jazz. A first-generation Filipino American from Chicago, he draws deeply from the AACM legacy--Anthony Braxton, Henry Threadgill, Muhal Richard Abrams--and his home city's tradition of bold, searching saxophone work. Since his 2008 Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition win, Irabagon has used his Irabbagast Records imprint to sustain a commitment to fierce originality and collective dialogue. Focus Out serves as a formidable statement from his working quartet, featuring Irabagon ...

Album Review

Jon Irabagon: Someone to Someone

Read "Someone to Someone" reviewed by Stefano Merighi

by Stefano Merighi
April 6, 2026

Il sassofonista e compositore Jon Irabagon è un altro super virtuoso del nostro tempo: ecletttico, onnivoro musicalmente, molto prolifico. Questo recente disco presenta una formazione nuova, PlainsPeak, un quartetto convenzionale, e si offre come un caloroso omaggio alla città di Chicago, a partire dalle note di presentazione, scritte da Jon stesso, bravissimo nel comporre una guida sintetica di tutto ciò che è influente nella Windy City--dai panorami architettonici alla fisionomia culinaria, dalla centralità dell'ambiente lacustre alla intensa vita culturale e ...

Radio & Podcasts

Jon Irabagon, Yelena Eckemoff, Walter Smith III and Eric Mingus with Catherine Sikora

by Hobart Taylor
March 18, 2026

Persian jazz fusion from Qajar Jazz + Shabaka, Niia, Nina Simone re-mixed and Adrian Younge's latest. Playlist Host Speaks 00:00 Qajar Jazz “Hot Jazz" from Sovereign (Self-Produced) 00:21 Yelena Eckemoff “Gamla Stan" from Rosendals Garden (L&H) 04:13 Arnold Ludvig “ Port of Thor" from Live @ Maggies (TUTL) 13:47 Catherine Sikora/Eric Mingus “Lament for St. Anthony" from Live at the Studio of the Lost Realm (Self--Produced) 21:08 Host Speaks 32:20 Adrian Younge “Portschute" from Portschute (Linear Labs) 36:01 ...

Live Review

Jon Irabagon al Torrione di Ferrara

by Libero Farnè
March 17, 2026

Jon Irabagon's Rising Sun Quartet Torrione Jazz Club Ferrara 14 marzo 2026 Dai tempi della sua militanza nel gruppo Mostly Other People Do the Killing ad oggi Jon Irabagon ha confermato in vari contesti le intense e duttili doti tecnico-espressive del suo linguaggio. Nel 2022, l'ennesima nuova esperienza: il quartetto con cui ha pubblicato Rising Sun. Dal disco è stato desunto il nome per definire anche il gruppo, del quale venerdì 13 marzo, alla vigilia ...

Multiple Reviews

Jon Irabagon: Self-Motivated And Inner-Directed

by Doug Collette
March 13, 2026

Self-motivated and inner-directed as he is, saxophonist/composer Jon Irabagon has navigated his career path with his very own sense of logic. And, peculiar as that may seem to some, his body of work is like a memorable improvisation, resolving itself at various junctures, just when those various vagaries would seem to preclude such action. So it is with Focus Out and Saturday's Child--while the latter might seem to render the former too conventional for its own good, the duo title ...