Catching up with Jon Irabagon (2025) (Part 1 of 2) ~ The Free Jazz Collective

By Paul Acquaro

Saxophonist Jon Irabagon already has two new albums ready for release
for 2026 and so what better excuse is needed to look back at the last four he
put out under his name? None at all … except that it should have
happened sooner! 

Jon Irabagon – Server Farm (Irabbagast, 2025)

Chicago-based saxophonist Jon Irabagon has been energizing the jazz and
experimental music scene for a while now …from being a founding member of  Most Other
People Do the Killing, to his own projects like Outright! and the
experimental metal-tinged work of I Hear Nothing but the Blues – just to name
a few. Over the years he has teamed up with jazz veterans like bassist Joe
Fonda and drummer Barry Altschul to form exciting working groups
drawing inspiration anew from classic free jazz forms as well as working with
contemporary masters like guitarist Mary Halvorson, pianist Matt Mitchell and new music’s Mivos Quartet.
On Server Room, the restless saxophonist dons his composer cap and delves into
a rich musical world that connects contemporary fusion, rock, classical and
straight-up jazz.

Server Farm draws on a big pool of peers:  Mazz Swift on violin and
vocals, Peter Evans on trumpet, flugelhorn, Miles Okazaki and Wendy Eisenberg
on guitar, Matt Mitchell on piano and synths, Michael Formanek on acoustic bass and
Chris Lightcap on electric bass, Dan Weiss on drums and Levy Lorenzo on
kulintang, laptop, electronics and vibraphone. It’s the kulintang that we are
first confronted with on the opener ‘Colocation’ – the earthy sounding set of
gongs from the Philippines give way to the furnace blast of sound that propels
the first track.

There is a concept behind the album, as suggested by the recording’s name. A server farm is a sprawling complex run by the likes of Amazon and Microsoft containing countless
rows of computer calculating numbers and guzzling finite natural resources
like there will be no tomorrow to power our e-commerce lust and AI addiction. For Irabagon, who enjoys creating
inquisitive worlds around his music, it seems to be a chance to play with the
terminology (‘Colocation,’ for instance, refers to the practice in the IT
world of placing your servers and networking gear in a third-party data
center) and to write dramatic pieces that contrast
organic sounds and algorithmic aggression. 

So, back to ‘Colocation’ – after the chiming intro, the band smacks you upside the
head. Insistent percussion, titillating Fender Rhodes and a gripping horn line
indeed feels like the heat of a thousand servers mining bitcoin. The first solo
passage goes to Mitchell who actually seems to cool things down a bit in exchange with Weiss and Lightcap. The intensity comes back and eventually morphs into a chaotic free-wheeling passage before leading into a lightly polyrhythmic interlude lead by Swift and accompanied by the horns
before splintering into electronic tones. The sonic complexity and textures in the
first 13 minutes alone is nearly satisfying enough … nearly … there is after all the majority of the album to still come!

‘Routers’ – named after a device that anyone with a home internet connection should be
aware of – follows with a sharply syncopated head that invites some inventive
sax work from the leader – and eventually congeals into a rich interweaving of
melodies and harmony. ‘Singularities,’ a reference to concept of artificial
intelligence surpassing human intelligence, begins with a tumble of melodic
strands and some big-band harmonies. The longest track by a minute, it also
packs a lot into its running time. The most intensive use of guitar on the
recording happens here, as well as the most prominent hard-bop grooves.
The last track ‘Spy’ features an obtuse vocal melody that could perhaps symbolize AI having defeated the humans.

Overall a spectacular album, data rich and emotionally laden with, needless to
say, expert musicianship all around. While we may not really know what the
future holds, it seems like we’ll have a good soundtrack for it. 

Peter Brendler and Jon Irabagon – Two-Part Inventions (Irabbagast, 2025)

The impetuous for the project began with Brendler’s own intensive
practicing during the pandemic. He writes in the liner notes about his efforts
to “explore playing multiple parts of a piece concurrently on the bass.” This
led to him suggesting to Irabagon trying out two pieces that adorn the album,
Bill Evan’s “Turn out the Stars” and George Shearing’s “Conception.” Irabagon
grabbed the idea and in turn proposed an entire album of jazz standards by pianists. 

From the moment the album opens with the aforementioned Evans piece, the
prowess of the duo is evident. ‘Turn out the Stars’ begins with a faithful
rendering of the melody, with a melancholic sax line and a responsive walking
bass line. Somewhat surprising is how one really does not really miss what is not there. The music is skeletal but also rather big boned.
The following tune, ‘Joshua’, from Victor Feldman, is a more uptempo piece that
features some blistering runs. Herbie Hancock’s ‘Maiden Voyage’, appearing a little later on the recording, is a true high point. Irabagon’s
solo is far reaching and Brendler covers an extended range of both bass and
melodic parts. 

This is a refined gem of a recording. Focused on standards and showcasing a
wonderfully heightened sense of camaraderie, Two-Part Invention is a subdued
highlight. 

Available digitally:

* or maybe more –  four is possible on the bass and two on the sax with multiphonics, so six notes, maybe, but it seems a bit stressful, no?