First-generation Filipino-American saxophonist Jon Irabagon is a celebrated composer and bandleader. He is the founder of Irabbagast Records and a very much in-demand sideman. His talents are showcased in the short film Legacy: Jon Irabagon by the Columbus, Ohio-based company ‘A Tribe for Jazz’. Directed by Julian Melanson and produced by Stephanie Matthews, the film captures Irabagon’s innovative solo performance in a beautifully lit, artistically shot black-box theater environment. The film is out this October, but I had the opportunity to speak to him about the film, his career, and much more.
Hi Jon. Congratulations on your career to date, and the film Legacy. Before we talk about the film, and for the benefit of our readers, how did you initially get into music?
I originally started playing alto saxophone in 5th grade to get a chance to hang out with my friends. I didn’t really take it seriously until my high school band director, Tom Beckwith, took me under his wing and introduced me to the music of Cannonball Adderley, Sonny Rollins, Charlie Parker, and John Coltrane. From then I knew that there was this magical, communicative and passionate world of improvisatory music and I began expanding my influences. However, the sheer joy, feeling of transcendence, and the absolute FUN are the emotions that I still find the most exciting and essential in not only music but the other arts and day-to-day life as well. I try to seek out these feelings from the people and activities every day, and I have jazz and music to thank for this life direction.
You’ve quoted Roscoe Mitchell and Anthony Braxton as influential on you playing solo. For our readers, can you elaborate on how they impacted your approach to music?
Being from Chicago, I’ve heard the most beautiful straight-ahead jazz music and the most searching, and everything in between. Chicago is beautiful that way. And once in a while you would run across solo saxophone shows there, with innovators such as Braxton and Roscoe Mitchell, both from Chicago, but visitors like Evan Parker and Peter Brotzmann as well. For me, solo playing has always been fascinating because of how naked you are on stage. Your entire artistic direction and philosophy are laid bare for everyone to see for the entire set, with nothing to hide behind and no one to lean on. For me, solo performances are the most demanding and rewarding, and the lessons you learn from playing solo can transfer into your playing in large and small ensembles, as well as your compositional direction. These masters of solo playing– and I would add musicians such as John Zorn, Ned Rothenberg, Peter Evans, and many others– have provided so many questions and directions to think about and ponder. This is part of the exciting and never-ending beauty of music. You can continuously grow and learn if you’re open to finding inspiration around you.
You came to prominence as an alto saxophonist. Was there a ‘magic moment’ when you knew your tenor saxophone days beckoned?
Chicago is a TENOR town. Even though I started by learning Cannonball Adderley albums from beginning to end, I was surrounded by the history and beauty of the Chicago tenor saxophone lineage, which includes masters like Gene Ammons, Sonny Stitt, Fred Anderson, Von Freeman, etc. My alto playing was always influenced by these big, brawny sounds and daring improvisations. When I joined Dave Douglas’ quintet nine or ten years ago, he wanted me playing only tenor in his group, and I’ve felt like I’ve had a lot to catch up to.
You composed your salient 2021 solo album ‘Bird with Streams’, over a prolonged vacation in South Dakota. Please tell us more about this creative period and, in general, the ease of composing?
When COVID-19 crippled New York City in March 2020, my family fled to my in-laws’ place in South Dakota, and I soon thereafter found a canyon a few minutes away that I practiced, composed, and meditated at for several hours every day for seven months. The time there was invigorating and inspiring, even with the world falling apart all around me. Part of the time spent there was devoted to composition, and other parts to revisiting the many standards and jazz standards I had learned over the years. Simultaneously, Charlie Parker’s centennial came and went while I was there, and I wound up practicing a lot of the melodies that he had composed. I knew I had to document my time in the canyon, and Bird with Streams, which features many of Bird’s compositions, is one documentation from my time there. There are also a quintet album and a quartet album’s worth of music that I composed while there that are being released early in 2022. These songs were written while I was improvising for hours at a time, recording myself practicing, and going back to find the germs of ideas that I felt could be expanded into full compositions. I gathered as many germs as possible, and when the weather changed into being too cold to go outside every day, I switched my focus to those ideas and expanding them into the compositions that wound up on these upcoming albums.
Let’s talk about the film Legacy. How did the project with Bruce Halliburton’s A Tribe for Jazz develop?
I met Bruce through touring with Ralph Alessi and Andy Milne, who both had worked with Bruce in the past. He had formed A Tribe for Jazz to help differentiate and elevate jazz artists who haven’t been given a large platform to share their voice with, and we began to work together soon after. The Tribe for Jazz team has several specialists throughout several sectors of publicity, none of which I tend to focus any time on as an artist. So Bruce and company have been great to help make my story more visible and hopefully relatable. The film Legacy is the main output of our time together so far, and it has all the trademarks that A Tribe for Jazz shoots for with their work– professional production, light, and camerawork up to the artistic level of the music and a focus on the story behind the artist. It has been a pleasure and a learning experience for me for sure.
In the film, you refer to focusing on nature, the need for introspection, being grounded by fatherhood, and the value of family. In light of the pace society lives and is changing, has your artistry become a more important factor in sustaining your health and wellbeing?
Being able to project my voice and discover my own philosophies behind the music and my life have always been high priorities for me, but the recent pandemic and fatherhood have both brought this focus to the forefront. The beautiful thing about art and living a creative life is that there’s always something that motivates you, there’s always something interesting, there’s always someone out there that you can learn from and draw inspiration from. This optimistic, searching, fun-loving direction has helped me out of some difficult times and continues to be a steady force in keeping me centered. I couldn’t imagine life without this creativity-first idealism, and I feel that this assured and confident position can help anyone in any situation get through any tough times.
The film is directed by Julian Melanson and produced by Stephanie Matthews. Please tell us more about working with the team and the film production
Julian and Stephanie are two of the most professional, seasoned, and focused people I have ever met, and you can see their passion for their art throughout Legacy. This movie and my story could not have been told without them, and I’ll be forever thankful for their vision and artistry. I came into the weekend putting myself fully under their direction, and Julian knew exactly how to tell my story succinctly, interestingly, and vividly. As a person who focuses mainly on my saxophone and music, it was fascinating to see everyone on the teamwork with as much focus and energy on their crafts as I do on mine. We filmed safely, distanced whenever possible, and obviously, my solo concert was safe to record. The energy and the colors that the producers brought to my music really helped me improvise in new and different ways during the shoot.
Please tell us more about the tracks performed in the film.
The tracks represent a cross-section of compositions from my time as a bandleader, with the oldest track appearing on my first album ever (Outright from 2007) and the final piece debuting here, with the original quartet version coming out in early 2022 on an upcoming album entitled Rising Sun. The tracks in between span several different album releases of mine, and there’s a track that has never been recorded as well (Greebles). I wrote For When We’re Apart (Music Box Song) for my wife during a time I was on the road a lot, and you can hear the melancholy mood to it. The Outright Theme is my take on a New Orleans parade. The concert begins with Dark Horizon, which sets a foreboding, desolate tone, reflecting the serious times we currently find ourselves in. In addition to each song meaning a lot to me personally, I wanted to touch on as many emotions and feelings as I could so that every listener, whether they like jazz or not, can hopefully find something they can relate to or reflect upon. Ultimately, if I can help bring new listeners into the realm of creative music, I will have done a good service in this world.
What is your next project?
I’ve got several new albums out and coming out soon; Bird with Streams as mentioned earlier is now out on my Bandcamp page. The other compositions I wrote while in that canyon are assembled on two upcoming albums.
The first is a reconvening of my quintet Outright! It features Ray Anderson on trombone, Matt Mitchell on piano, Chris Lightcap on bass, and Dan Weiss on drums, and will be released in the spring of 2022. The album is called Recharge the Blade and it focused on human ingenuity and the most creative and destructive weapons that genius has come up with.
The sister album to Recharge the Blade (which will probably be released simultaneously to it) is called Rising Sun and features the same rhythm section playing more in a groove versus free improvisation setting, with guests Adam O’Farrill and Miles Okazaki. We’re hoping to tour this one extensively in 2022 so keep an eye out for that. Further, I have a love for solo saxophone recordings, and I’ve done three to date (one on sopranino saxophone, one on mezzo-soprano saxophone, and one on tenor saxophone) and hope to record a fourth one soon on soprillo saxophone, which is the world’s smallest saxophone.
Where can we follow your activities?
My website is jonirabagon.com
My Instagram is @irabajon
My Facebook page is at Jon Irabagon Music
My Bandcamp page is at https://jonirabagon.bandcamp.com/
A Tribe for Jazz can be found at https://www.facebook.com/atribeforjazz
We wish Jon and the ‘A Tribe for Jazz’ team the very best with the film.
Photos courtesy of Stephanie Matthews @A Tribe for Jazz
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