Results for "Jonah Parzen-Johnson"

Jonah Parzen-Johnson

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

Imagine Giving Up

By JONAH PARZEN-JOHNSON

Label: We Jazz Records
Released: 2020
Track listing: Finding the Feeling; Focus Re-Focus; Everything is Everything Else; Up; The Smile When You Fall; Stand Still.

Jonah 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 ...

Two 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 ...

Jonah Parzen-Johnson

Helsinki 8.12.18

By JONAH PARZEN-JOHNSON

Label: We Jazz Records
Released: 2019
Track listing: This Is How It Works; Everything Is Everything Else; It’s Better If You Don’t; Certain Kinds Of Questions; You Don’t Get To Finish; Trying To Explain; Find The Feeling; Keeping In Touch.

Jonah 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 ...

Giuseppe Doronzo: Goya

By KARL ACKERMANN

Italian baritone saxophonist Giuseppe Doronzo is the type of restless artist that continually looks for new resources from which to expand on the language of his instrument. In recent years he has utilized a variety of format platforms as launching points. With the self-titled debut of the quintet Falga (Self-Produced, 2016) and the subsequent AVA Trio ...

I Try To Remember Where I Come From

By JONAH PARZEN-JOHNSON

Label: Clean Feed Records
Released: 2017
Track listing: Cabin Pressure; These Shoulders, Those Shoulders; Guns Make Us Murderers; Too Many Dreams; What Do I Do With Sorry; I Have Questions; I Try To Remember Where I Come From.