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Jon Irabagon

Jon Irabagon, winner of the 2008 Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition, has performed extensively as both a sideman and as a leader in an ever-expanding range of projects, from the most straight ahead to the most searching. Jon has studied under such divergent artists as Dave Liebman, Wynton Marsalis, Dick Oatts, Jason Moran and Victor Goines, and has performed and/or recorded with musical luminaries such as Billy Joel, Wynton Marsalis, Bright Eyes, Tom Harrell, Tommy Iago, Joe Lovano, Dave Liebman, Deborah Gibson, John Abercrombie, Frank Wess, Wycliffe Gordon, Renee Fleming, Kenny Washington, Lou Reed, Jenny Lewis, Ron Sexsmith, and Ken Vandermark. Jon has performed and done clinics and workshops in the United States, Canada, Europe, Macau, Taiwan, Costa Rica, and Japan, and performs regularly in New York City’s top venues such as Birdland, the Jazz Standard, 55 Bar, the Jazz Gallery, Zebulon, Barbes, Sweet Rhythm, and Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola.

Jon’s conception of complete musical inclusion in his improvisation and composition is apparent in the wide-ranging body of work he has compiled in his young career: his quintet Outright! (Innova) that embraces the complete history of jazz while wrapping it up in group improvisation, his continuous additive duo project with drummer Mike Pride “I Don’t Hear Nothin’ But the Blues” (Loyal Label), his unapologetic '80s cover band, his Sonny Rollins Tribute Trio, the straight-ahead modern jazz group Confluence (For the Artist Records) that he co-leads with fellow Manhattan School of Music graduates, the freely-improvising RIDD Quartet (Clean Feed), as well as his long-time tenure in the self-destructing bebop cyborg terrorist band Mostly Other People do the Killing (Hot Cup).

Jon has been signed to Concord Records and has a CD of original music and jazz standards coming out in the fall of 2009.

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Radio & Podcasts

Jon Irabagon: Free-Jazz Musician, Saxophonist, Composer, Band Leader And Producer

Read "Jon Irabagon: Free-Jazz Musician, Saxophonist, Composer, Band Leader And Producer" reviewed by Doug Hall


On this show, we chat with Jon Irabagon, Filipino-American born free-jazz saxophonist, soloist, composer, bandleader, educator and producer (as founder of Irabbagast Records). A graduate of both the Manhattan School of Music in New York City and Berklee College of Music in Boston, Irabagon has been composing and collaborating with both acclaimed experimental jazz guitarist Mary Halvorson and seminal free-jazz saxophonist and composer John Zorn, whom he recently performed with at the Roulette in Brooklyn. Irabagon has also ...

10
Album Review

Jon Irabagon's Outright!: Recharge the Blade

Read "Recharge the Blade" reviewed by Mark Corroto


As with nearly all of saxophonist Jon Irabagon's music, the matter for debate is whether the listener needs to be as caffeinated as the musician. His brand of performance, going back two decades, has been one of constant motion and a bottomless cup of ideas. We heard this in Irabagon's contribution to the band Mostly Other People Do The Killing, his I Don't Hear Nothin' but the Blues series, and his collaboration with Joe Fonda in Barry Altschul's 3Dom Factor. ...

5
Album Review

Ingrid Laubrock: Monochromes

Read "Monochromes" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Saxophonist & composer Ingrid Laubrock and her partner, drummer Tom Rainey self-released an ongoing series of spontaneous duets, the Stir Crazy Episodes, recorded during the pandemic lockdown. They were most likely a kind of pressure release mechanism for both artists. With Monochromes, Laubrock heads in the opposite direction by commissioning four musicians to pre-record tape pieces based on her notations, both conventional and graphical; these form the foundations for Laubrock and three different collaborations to improvise over. The single 40-minute ...

26
Album Review

Chad McCullough: The Charm of Impossibilities

Read "The Charm of Impossibilities" reviewed by Jack Bowers


At its core, trumpeter Chad McCullough's album, The Charm of Impossibilities is an homage to the music of classical composer Olivier Messiaen, whose singular approach to composition has inspired McCullough since he first happened upon works by the French writer soon after the turn of this century. He writes, “Messiaen's music is so complex in structure, yet still accessible to the casual listener and completely overwhelming emotionally." His plan for the album was to transpose Messiaen's concepts to a setting ...

5
Album Review

Chad McCullough: The Charm of Impossibilities

Read "The Charm of Impossibilities" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Trumpeter Chad McCullough encountered classical composer Olivier Messiaen's “Quator pour la fin du temps" back in the early days of his jazz career. That music was written in 1940 by Messiaen to be played by a chamber ensemble consisting of the composer's fellow inmates in a German prison camp. McCullough's The Charm Of Impossibilities takes its inspiration from this classical work. McCullough describes Messiaen's chamber piece: “Complex in structure, yet still accessible to the casual listener and completely ...

7
Album Review

Ivo Perelman: Reed Rapture in Brooklyn

Read "Reed Rapture in Brooklyn" reviewed by Jeff Schwartz


Is this album fundamentally unreviewable? Are there jazz fans who do not immediately know if they need an 11-hour collection of 103 improvised duets between Ivo Perelman and a dozen saxophonists and clarinetists? It is at least describable. Perelman is faithful to his tenor, while his partners bring examples of nearly every type of saxophone, from soprillo to contrabass, as well as most of the clarinet family. Although all tracks are free improvisations, the default mode is ...

4
Radio & Podcasts

Further Reed Rapture, A Motian Tribute and Gebhard's Birthday

Read "Further Reed Rapture, A Motian Tribute and Gebhard's Birthday" reviewed by Bob Osborne


On this week's show I am continuing my look at Ivo Perelman's Reed Rapture In Brooklyn, this time his partnership with Jon Irabagon. There is also further music from Irabagon, a great new album from Jakob Bro and Joe Lovano honouring Paul Motian, more from Perelman with Chad Fowler, and, two new releases celebrating Gebhard Ullmann's 65th birthday.Playlist Show Intro 00:00 Ivo Perelman & Jon Irabagon “Six" from Reed Rapture In Brooklyn (Mahalaka Music) 00:53 Jon Irabagon “Sprites" ...

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69

Radio

The Jazz Session #206: Jon Irabagon

The Jazz Session #206: Jon Irabagon

Source: AAJ Staff


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Recording

Jon Irabagon Featuring Barry Altschul - Foxy (2010)

Jon Irabagon Featuring Barry Altschul - Foxy (2010)

Source: Something Else!

By Pico When Jon Irabagon signed with the mighty Concord Records after bagging the 2008 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition for saxophone, you might assume that he would have left behind his wild side to become a more “serious" player. But his continued involvement in the gangsta jazz group Mostly Other People Do The Killing quickly dispelled any such notion. On September 14, J.I. further makes another statement that fame and acclaim hadn't changed him with his followup to the ...

137

Recording

Jon Irabagon - The Observer (Concord)

Jon Irabagon - The Observer (Concord)

Source: Master of a Small House

Dream session fantasies are still favorite fodder of many jazz players and interviewers alike. In the case of saxophonist Jon Irabagon a fantasy came true thanks to well-deserved win at the 2008 Thelonious Monk International Saxophone competition. Part of the prize purse was a Concord recording date with the players of his choosing. Irabagon, an improviser renowned recently for his various freer leaning projects, chose fittingly against type. A closer examination of his biography reveals that such a move is ...

151

Recording

Jon Irabagon Releases Concord Jazz Debut - The Observer

Jon Irabagon Releases Concord Jazz Debut - The Observer

Source: On Target Media Group


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Recording

Jon Irabagon Set to Release Concord Jazz Debut

Jon Irabagon Set to Release Concord Jazz Debut

Source: On Target Media Group

On October 20th, Concord Jazz will release The Observer, saxophonist and composer Jon Irabagon’s newest recording as a leader, Concord debut and follow up to his first album as leader, Outright!, released last year by Innova. Winning the 2008 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition has afforded Irabagon the opportunity to assemble a dream-team of musicians, including the stellar rhythm section of pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Rufus Reid and drummer Victor Lewis, alongside veteran producer Don Sickler and legendary engineer Rudy ...

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Performance / Tour

KC Jazz Club: Jon Irabagon Group Featuring Victor Lewis

KC Jazz Club: Jon Irabagon Group Featuring Victor Lewis

Source: Michael Ricci

The winner of the 2008 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, alto saxophonist Jon Irabagon has played with such musical luminaries as Billy Joel, Wynton Marsalis, Bright Eyes, Frank Wess, and Lou Reed. Oct 30, 2009 Terrace Gallery $15.00 Jon Irabagon Group featuring Victor Lewis The Kennedy Center and the Monk Institute present the winner of the 2008 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition, Jon Irabagon, as part of the Institute's ongoing partnership with the Center. For ...

Charlie Parker
saxophone, alto

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Recharge the Blade

Irabbagast Records
2024

buy

The Charm of...

Calligram Records
2023

buy

Monochromes

Intakt Records
2023

buy

Off-Kilter

See Tao Recordings
2022

buy

Songs Of Ascent Book...

Greenleaf Music
2022

buy

Rising Sun

Irrabagast Records
2022

buy

Crosstalk

From: Off-Kilter
By Jon Irabagon

Long Tall Sunshine

From: Long Tall Sunshine
By Jon Irabagon

What's Next

From: What's Next
By Jon Irabagon

Resist the Middle

From: Resist
By Jon Irabagon

What Have We Here

From: Inaction is An Action
By Jon Irabagon

The Cost of Modern Living

From: Behind The Sky
By Jon Irabagon

Videos

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