Jon Irabagon: Behind the Sky - Album Review

Saxophonist Jon Irabagon is hard to figure and clearly wants it that way: the 36- year-old Filipino- American’s output has ranged from mainstream hard-bop to free and experimental to downright avant-garde, yet in each setting he has seemed entirely at home.

Best known as a member of trumpeter Dave Douglas’s quintet and as a co-conspirator in arch post-jazz collective Mostly Other People Do The Killing, Irabagon has dispensed with the usual genre filters by setting up his own label.

Behind the Sun is one of two albums released simultaneously, a powerful set of deep-in-the- pocket post-bop from a talented quartet with a guest appearance from hard-bop master trumpeter Tom Harrell.

The other release, Inaction is an Action, is a solo exploration of the seldom-heard sopranino saxophone – and why not?

[ jonirabagon.com ]