Jon Irabagon: I Don't Hear Nothin' but the Blues Volume 3 Part 2: Exuberant Scars

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 Mike Pride, recording a single 47+ minute improvised piece for the Loyal Label in 2009. Irabagon added guitarist Mike Barr to make it a trio for Volume 2: Appalachian Haze (Irrabagast, 2012), sticking to the single 48-minute format. For Volume 3: Anatomical Snuffbox (Irrabagast, 2020), the trio became a quartet with the addition of Ava Mendoza's guitar. This quartet remains intact, as does the chaos concept for IDHNBTB's Volume 3 Part 2: Exhuberant Scars.

Great improvised music, like chaotic systems in theory, are predictable even though they may appear to be random. Irabagon's quartet reveals hidden patterns throughout this 46-minute improvisation. Opening with Pride's thumb piano and marimba before settling back into his drum kit, Irabagon and the guitars of Mendoza and Barr find a kind of order within disorder. As the intensity ramps up, so does the hubbub. The melee, specifically Irabagon's tenor saxophone facing off against two guitars, and the energy Mendoza and Barr produce, is the focal point throughout. Does he hold his own? Certainly. Does the quartet create patterns out of seeming chaos? Absolutely.