Results for "Jonah Parzen-Johnson"

Jonah Prazen-Johnson: Imagine Giving Up

by Karl Ackermann
March 24, 2020

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
February 20, 2020

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

Jonah Parzen-Johnson

Born: May 26, 1988

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

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
May 31, 2019

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
September 7, 2018

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.

Karl Ackermann's Best Releases of 2017

by Karl Ackermann
December 8, 2017

2017 was an exceptional year for artists who elude convention; veterans such as Wadada Leo Smith and relative newcomers like Abdul Moimême gave us unique musical insights. It was an outstanding year for solo recordings. Along with Smith and Moimême, Rob Mazurek, Matthew Shipp, Irish multi-instrumentalist Aine O'Dwyer, Cuban pianist Aruán Ortiz, Italian pianist Stefano Battaglia, ...

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

by Glenn Astarita
September 17, 2017

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 ...