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Jon Irabagon: I Don't Hear Nothin' but the Blues Volume 3 Part 2: Exuberant Scars
by Mark Corroto
Besides being a wunderkind in jazz and improvised music, is Jon Irabagon also a kind of math aesthete? Specifically, does he sometimes dabble in chaos theory? Within the apparent randomness of complex improvised music of Exhuberant Scars, Irabagon finds underlying patterns, interconnections, feedback loops and musical self-organization If one is keeping score, Exhuberant Scars is volume 3, part 2 of Ibragon's I Donʼt Hear Nothinʼ But The Blues (IDHNBTB) series. The concept began as a duo with drummer ...
Continue ReadingMiles Okazaki: Miniature America
by Alberto Bazzurro
Ventidue miniature svarianti da uno a sei minuti, con impegnati sottoinsiemi (o microgruppi, se preferite) estrapolati dal totale dei dieci elementi, sette strumentisti e tre cantanti, coinvolti nell'operazione, è quanto ci offre questo nuovo lavoro discografico (il dodicesimo, ci viene detto) a nome del cinquantenne chitarrista Miles Okazaki, con la partecipazione di svariati musicisti di punta dell'attuale scena newyorchese (e non). Ogni episodio possiede--fisiologicamente, verrebbe da dire--un aplomb cameristico di sicuro fascino, anche se è inevitabile che il ...
Continue ReadingJon Irabagon: Free-Jazz Musician, Saxophonist, Composer, Band Leader And Producer
by Doug Hall
On this show, we chat with Jon Irabagon, Filipino-American born free-jazz saxophonist, soloist, composer, bandleader, educator and producer (as founder of Irabbagast Records). A graduate of both the Manhattan School of Music in New York City and Berklee College of Music in Boston, Irabagon has been composing and collaborating with both acclaimed experimental jazz guitarist Mary Halvorson and seminal free-jazz saxophonist and composer John Zorn, whom he recently performed with at the Roulette in Brooklyn. Irabagon has also ...
Continue ReadingJon Irabagon's Outright!: Recharge the Blade
by Mark Corroto
As with nearly all of saxophonist Jon Irabagon's music, the matter for debate is whether the listener needs to be as caffeinated as the musician. His brand of performance, going back two decades, has been one of constant motion and a bottomless cup of ideas. We heard this in Irabagon's contribution to the band Mostly Other People Do The Killing, his I Don't Hear Nothin' but the Blues series, and his collaboration with Joe Fonda in Barry Altschul's 3Dom Factor. ...
Continue ReadingIngrid Laubrock: Monochromes
by Mark Corroto
Saxophonist & composer Ingrid Laubrock and her partner, drummer Tom Rainey self-released an ongoing series of spontaneous duets, the Stir Crazy Episodes, recorded during the pandemic lockdown. They were most likely a kind of pressure release mechanism for both artists. With Monochromes, Laubrock heads in the opposite direction by commissioning four musicians to pre-record tape pieces based on her notations, both conventional and graphical; these form the foundations for Laubrock and three different collaborations to improvise over. The single 40-minute ...
Continue ReadingChad McCullough: The Charm of Impossibilities
by Jack Bowers
At its core, trumpeter Chad McCullough's album, The Charm of Impossibilities is an homage to the music of classical composer Olivier Messiaen, whose singular approach to composition has inspired McCullough since he first happened upon works by the French writer soon after the turn of this century. He writes, “Messiaen's music is so complex in structure, yet still accessible to the casual listener and completely overwhelming emotionally." His plan for the album was to transpose Messiaen's concepts to a setting ...
Continue ReadingChad McCullough: The Charm of Impossibilities
by Dan McClenaghan
Trumpeter Chad McCullough encountered classical composer Olivier Messiaen's “Quator pour la fin du temps" back in the early days of his jazz career. That music was written in 1940 by Messiaen to be played by a chamber ensemble consisting of the composer's fellow inmates in a German prison camp. McCullough's The Charm Of Impossibilities takes its inspiration from this classical work. McCullough describes Messiaen's chamber piece: “Complex in structure, yet still accessible to the casual listener and completely ...
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