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Jonah Parzen-Johnson

Jonah Parzen-Johnson is a saxophonist living in Brooklyn, NY. He writes lofi music for solo saxophone and analog synthesizer. Imagine the raw energy of an Appalachian Folk choir, tempered by a lofi, minimal aesthetic inspired by the music of Bill Callahan. His carefully assembled analog synthesizer breathes with his saxophone, building independent melodic layers to support his sound, or soaring above his extended technique driven saxophone playing. All performed live, without any looping or recorded samples.

A Chicago native, Jonah’s circular breathing, multi-phonics and impossibly nimble vocalization owes a debt to the Chicago saxophone legacy, but his devotion to a quirky almost vocal style places him in new territory for the solo saxophone. He has meticulously constructed a world of warm memories remembered in a cold present, as he melds the evocative nature of folk music with the chilling power of experimentalism. In addition to relentlessly touring as a solo saxophonist, Jonah is a co-leader of the nationally touring afrobeat ensemble, Zongo Junction, and an active part of Brooklyn’s ever- expanding independent music community.

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Album Review

Berke Can Özcan, Jonah Parzen-Johnson: Friendship Music for Turkey

Read "Friendship Music for Turkey" reviewed 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 ...

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Album Review

Jonah Prazen-Johnson: Imagine Giving Up

Read "Imagine Giving Up" reviewed 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 ...

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Multiple Reviews

Two Going Solo

Read "Two Going Solo" reviewed 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

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Album Review

Jonah Parzen-Johnson: Helsinki 8.12.18

Read "Helsinki 8.12.18" reviewed 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 ...

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Album Review

Jonah Parzen-Johnson: I Try To Remember Where I Come From

Read "I Try To Remember Where I Come From" reviewed 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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Album Review

Jonah Parzen-Johnson: I Try To Remember Where I Come From

Read "I Try To Remember Where I Come From" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


Chicago native and Brooklyn resident Jonah Parzen-Johnson has strong links to the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), having studied with that organization's Mwata Bowden. Parzen-Johnson--a co-leader of the Afro-beat ensemble, Zongo Junction--plays the baritone saxophone and analog synthesizers in each of his lofi solo outings, to date. His new album I Try To Remember Where I Come From furthers Parzen-Johnson's exploration of his genre-defying music.A creator of experimental music in a different vein, Parzen-Johnson had ...

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Album Review

Jonah Parzen-Johnson: Remember When Things Were Better Tomorrow

Read "Remember When Things Were Better Tomorrow" reviewed by Dave Wayne


In the hands (and minds) of certain artists, self-imposed limitations can actually become fertile ground for creative work- arounds, new strategies, new ways of seeing and hearing things. Multi-instrumentalist Jonah Parzen-Johnson is one such artist. Parzen-Johnson plays baritone saxophone and analog synthesizer simultaneously and spontaneously. No overdubs or studio trickery. As you might imagine, his music is quite distinctive. After listening to Remember When Things Were Better Tomorrow, I would say that what Parzen-Johnson is doing is attempting to merge ...

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Performance / Tour

Jazz this week: Marcus Miller, Jonah Parzen-Johnson, Pamela Rose's "Wild Women of Song," Jazz Edge Big Band, and more

Jazz this week: Marcus Miller, Jonah Parzen-Johnson, Pamela Rose's "Wild Women of Song," Jazz Edge Big Band, and more

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

There's lots going on in jazz and creative music this week in St. Louis, and so you don't miss out, here's a special early edition of our weekly highlights post... Tuesday, June 16 Tonight, bassist Marcus Miller and his band return to St. Louis to begin a three-night stand continuing through Thursday at Jazz at the Bistro. Miller, also known for his production work on behalf of musicians including Miles Davis and David Sanborn, is on tour promoting a new ...

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Video / DVD

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Introducing Jonah Parzen-Johnson

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Introducing Jonah Parzen-Johnson

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

This week, let's get acquainted via video with saxophonist Jonah Parzen-Johnson, who will be in St. Louis to play at 8:00 p.m. this coming Tuesday, June 16 at Foam, 3359 Jefferson Ave. The $5 admission charge also includes sets from New Music Circle's Jeremy Kannapell and another opening act TBA. A Chicago native now residing in NYC, Parzen-Johnson specializes in solo works performed on baritone sax, augmented with electronics, and which often have titles that would fit right into a ...

“The ideal soundtrack to a scene in an offbeat indie where the two protagonists come together and have violent weird-sex followed by tender snuggles.” - Noisey (Vice Magazine)

“A far-ranging solo performance.” - New York Times

“A folk music for a new tribe of people, one that has access to new technologies and uses them as opposed to being used by them.” - All About Jazz

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