Jon

Saxophonist Jon Irabagon is a magician and shapeshifter, a composer whose imagination goes from lyrical grace to controlled chaos and back again. As often as not, his sonic creations are capable of existing in both states simultaneously.

His newest recording, with a quartet he calls PlainsPeak for its grounding in the Chicagoland Midwest, is Someone to Someone. It marks one of Irabagon‘s periodic returns to playing acoustic jazz in a conventional setting: his alto saxophone, trumpet (Russ Johnson, a New York trumpet phenom for 25 years, originally from Wisconsin), bass (Clark Sommers, a top-echelon Chicago player), and drums (Dana Hall, originally from the East Coast but based in Chicago). The format recalls Irabagon’s membership in Mostly Other People Do the Killing, a quartet with the same instrumentation that featured elastic and joyful melodies, inspiring organic, harmonically adventurous improvisations.

Someone to Someone exceeds that standard. All the compositions are by Iabagon, and they are each immediately engaging while leaving every possibility open.

Take “At What Price Garlic”, a loping tune in 5/4 with a sly and conversational melody, but that includes a section of 3/4 waltz time that builds urgency using syncopated sets of three notes, articulated in unison. Your whole body will sway as you listen to this track, immune to the changes in time signature, and by the time Irabagon’s swirling solo begins, with the drums improvising with equal fervor along with the saxophone, you will be all in for the thrill it brings. “The Pulseman” similarly engages with an immediate rhythmic groove — a repeated bass line slides under a modified 4/4 swing. Then, the trumpet and saxophone play a harmonized series of shapes that swing, bop, and chirp before the solos begin in a conventional jazz manner.

Conventional? Ah, Jon Irabagon typically resists that adjective, and thank goodness.

If you step back just one release to his February 2025 recording, Server Farm, you can hear melodies that are just as engaging, but come from a powerfully unconvential ten-piece band of cutting edge improvisers — two guitars (Miles Okazaki and Wendy Eisenberg), mad keyboards (piano, Rhodes, and Prophet synth from Matt Mitchell), trumpeter Peter Evans (also from the original Mostly Other People quartet), vocals and violin (Mazz Swift, no relation I will assume), both electric and acoustic basses (Chris Lightcap and Michael Formanek, respectively), drummer Dan Weiss, and percussion/laptop from Levy Lorenzo.

Server Farm may just be one of the jazz albums of the year. “Colocation” comes flying out of the gates with a brass melody (with the leader playing tenor saxophone rather than alto) that snaps like a Basie lick. The rhythm section rushes forward as wildfire, first to promote a capacious Mitchell solo on Rhodes and then to lift a dense ensemble passage with both written and freely improvised elements. It all breaks out into noise for a few moments before building up a new melody that balances the horns against the violin over a serene ensemble vamp.

“Routers” finds Irabagon playing dreamy and echoey tenor over a dancing figure featuring vibes. Meanwhile, “Graceful Exit” begins as a pensive Formanek bass solo that evolves into a lushly written bass/violin/tenor saxophone chart, allowing Evans, Irabagon, and Formanek to play sensual melodies. It is gorgeous — Duke Ellington/Charles Mingus gorgeous — even as it too evolves into sections of mildly atonal improvisation.

One last mention of Server Farm: the very best track is “Singularities”, which kaliedoscopes through several sections, including a soul-jazz episode that sounds like the best CTI album ever made, with Evans, Irabagon, and the guitars wailing over a super-hip chord pattern laid down by Mitchell on Rhodes. As this part flattens out into a new bass pattern, a polyrhythmic section rises to climax with the whole band coming together — leading to a reprise of the first theme. It is an achievement.

Yet the new album, as different as it is, may be just as good. After all the frenzy of “Singularities”, a track from Someone to Someone like “Tiny Miracles (A Funeral for a Friend)” comes as a revelation. It also sounds BIG, despite featuring only four acoustic instruments, and it also builds intensity across a gradual transition from melody to stupendous collective improvisation and back again. Irabagon and Johnson play primarily within the harmonies of the “song”, but their improvisation is highly vocal and full of feeling. It sounds just as “free” as the most “out” jazz hopes to be.

The title track is another example of Irabagon’s range of sound. The dramatic head arrangement features the horns slowly and luciously interweaving over Sommers’ bowed bass. When the band chucks the tempo for a short open jam, you might wonder: Is this mainstream jazz or something avant-garde? It is neither/both, and so wonderfully played that the distinction evaporates. The parade groove “Buggin’ the Bug” sets up with just bass and drums in a funk as irresistible as a chocolate chip cookie, then Irabagon’s fun and swinging melody rides on top to give it a walking groove. The decision to have the horns trade eight-bar phrases is perfect fun, feeding into overlapping blues playing that absolutely kills.

It is a particular blessing that artists like Jon Irabagon are unafraid to defy convention, playing music that is both challenging and satisfying, rich in feeling but daring to have an edge. Someone to Someone from his acoustic PlainsPeak quartet is every bit the adventure that the earlier Server Farm was, making Irabagon two for two in a very creative 2025.