JON IRABAGON

SERVER FARM

Irabbagast Records

Jon Irabagon, tenor & sopranino saxophones/effects/composer; Miles Okazaki & Wendy Eisenberg, guitars; Matt Mitchell, piano/Fender Rhodes/Prophet-6; Michael Formanek, acoustic bass; Chris Lightcap, electric bass; Dan Weiss, drums; Levy Lorenzo, kulintang/laptop/electronics/vibraphone; Mazz Swift, violin/voice; Peter Evans, trumpet/flugelhorn.

Chicago-based saxophonist and composer, Jon Irabagon, has assembled his largest ensemble to date.  It’s a ten-piece band, made up of some of the most adventurous and creative musicians on the modern music landscape.  Titled “Server Farm” he opens the album with a vibraphone played by Levy Lorenzo.  Drummer Dan Weiss pushes the tune ahead like a freight train. Part of his core group includes Dan, pianist and keyboard master Matt Mitchell and electric bassist Chris Lightcap.  Mitchell steps into the spotlight on the opening tune “Colocation” to solo before the tune spins upward, like a rocket ship, and takes off into space.  I look up the word, Colocation. It’s the practice of renting space in a data center to store computing hardware and servers.  Many call it “colo” for short.  Irabagon is exploring A.I. on this recent release and all things electronic and computerized.  You will hear him experiment with sound effects, pedals and some post-production involving his saxophones.  At times, he tries to mimic A.I. by analyzing his band members and pulling material from them for his compositions.

“The promise and threat of Artificial Intelligence are just in the air these days.  People are paranoid about what’s going to happen, and justifiably so. …I was thinking about that, at the same time I was writing music for these nine specific musicians that I love and figuring out how to maximize the way that they naturally play,” Jon Irabagon explained.

His concept is alarming, but as the music unfolds, I hear it working. His quartet presents a different esthetic, but with similar principles.

“I didn’t want to overwrite and stifle the creativity of these artists.  There’s a lot of written material, and some of it is quite challenging.  But a lot of it comes from an amalgamation of ideas that they naturally lean towards.  Totally by accident, I found that I was turning them into a computer version of themselves, referencing their material while still staying in the moment and being able to improvise freely,” Irabagon justified this project and his ideas.

All the composition titles mirror computer references: “Routers,” “Singularities,” “Graceful Exit” and “Spy.” Perhaps the creator of this music and arranger of these instruments said it best when describing his work.

“Beauty, humor, darkness and insanity are all a part of it,” the first-generation Filipino American, Jon Irabagon sums up his album in a single sentence.  The release date for this experimental jazz is set for February 21^st.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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