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Jazz Articles about Jonah Parzen-Johnson
About Jonah Parzen-Johnson
Instrument: Saxophone, baritone
Berke Can Özcan & Jonah Parzen-Johnson: It Was Always Time
by Karl Ackermann
In 2023, baritone saxophonist and electronics artist Jonah Parzen-Johnson performed at a benefit concert in Istanbul following a devastating earthquake that took tens of thousands of lives in Turkey and Syria. Parzen-Johnson had worked with diverse colleagues ranging from John Zorn to Pearl Jam, but each of his recordings had been a solo project. Minutes before taking to the stage in Istanbul, he met Turkish drummer Berke Can Özcan, and the two performed that evening as a duo. Inspired by ...
Continue ReadingJonah Parzen-Johnson: You're Never Really Alone
by Karl Ackermann
You're Never Really Alone is the seventh solo album from baritone saxophonist Jonah Parzen-Johnson. “Solo" is misleading as Parzen-Johnson's nuanced use of electronics has consistently added the kind of multiple dimensions that belie the work of a single player. This album, in contrast, is wholly acoustic but showcases Parzen-Johnson's remarkable ability to create enigmatic, deeply moving and mystical soundscapes and narratives. Even without his customary electronic enhancements, Parzen-Johnson utilizes the full range of sounds available from the baritone ...
Continue ReadingBerke Can Özcan, Jonah Parzen-Johnson: Friendship Music for Turkey
by Karl Ackermann
The Brooklyn-based Chicagoan Jonah Parzen-Johnson has created clever, thought-provoking lo-fi music across all six of his previous releases. Each is a solo performance with Parzen-Johnson on baritone saxophone and a customized analog synthesizer. His work is entirely unique, but with a passing nod to the birthright of great Chicago saxophonists. Istanbul's Berke Can Özcan is a drummer, multi-instrumentalist, and composer, who describes himself as something of a continual work-in-progress. Across his previous seven genre-less recordings, he has worked with a ...
Continue ReadingJonah Prazen-Johnson: Imagine Giving Up
by Karl Ackermann
When Jonah Parzen-Johnson released his first full-length album, Michiana (Primary Records, 2012), the Brooklyn-based artist seemed to give priority status to the electronics through which he filtered his baritone saxophone compositions. Even more so, Parzen-Johnson's 2015 follow up, Remember When Things Were Better Tomorrow (also on Primary), was dominated by ambient drones. Parzen-Johnson has continued to develop his approach and on Imagine Giving Up we hear more complex applications for both the baritone and the synthesizer and a more human ...
Continue ReadingTwo Going Solo
by Friedrich Kunzmann
No, the title of this review doesn't refer to the autobiographical story of similar name, which tells of a young Roald Dahl looking for adventure in Africa. But like the protagonist of that book, the two individuals discussed in the following prove similarly adventurous in their own right and dig deep into the vast repertoire of their respective instruments to tell their own original tales--in a musical way. Ville Herrala Pu We Jazz Records
Continue ReadingJonah Parzen-Johnson: Helsinki 8.12.18
by Karl Ackermann
Chicago native Jonah Parzen-Johnson has music degrees from NYU and Manhattan School of Music, and the tutelage of the AACM in his background, but he keeps all that at arms-length. The Brooklyn resident continues to pursue his inimitable experimental music on Helsinki 8.12.18, his fourth solo album to feature baritone saxophone and electronics. The session was recorded at Helsinki's We Jazz Festival in December 2018. The set opens with a beautifully atmospheric “This Is How It Works," sounding ...
Continue ReadingJonah Parzen-Johnson: I Try To Remember Where I Come From
by Glenn Astarita
Originally from Chicago, baritone saxophonist Jonah Parzen-Johnson calls Brooklyn, N.Y. home these days but absorbed the creative spirit resident in the Windy City's progressive jazz legacy early on his career, studying and performing with some of the best. For example, he learned a great deal under the tutelage of woodwinds master Mwata Bowden, who is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. With his fourth album as a leader and first for Clean Feed, the artist ...
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