| Jazz |
Jon Irabagon’s “PlainsPeak”: A Chicago Saxophonist Strips Down, Turns Inward, and Leans Toward the Infinite.
Saxophonist and composer Jon Irabagon, a singular force in modern jazz, presents his new quartet with striking clarity and intent. Hailing originally from Chicago, Irabagon made waves with Server Farm, a dense, polyphonic nonet work that explored the bleeding edge of artificial intelligence, electronics, and compositional formality (see previous review HERE). Now, in an intriguing and deliberate pivot, he strips away all technological ornamentation to unveil PlainsPeak, a purely acoustic, leanly orchestrated album that feels at once grounded and transcendent.
This new ensemble features three exceptionally versatile musicians from the Midwest: trumpeter Russ Johnson, bassist Clark Sommers, and drummer Dana Hall. Across six core compositions, plus a seventh, untitled ten-minute track that reads like a generous bonus, Irabagon crafts a sonic landscape that is cerebral yet inviting, intellectually dense yet emotionally resonant.
This is not music for the distracted listener. Rather, it demands attention and rewards it with moments of arresting beauty and subtle brilliance. Irabagon’s compositions here draw a fine line between jazz’s storied past and its hyper-urban, often hyper-intellectual present. The quartet doesn’t seek to dazzle with excess but rather invites the listener into a quiet, luminous world where thought and feeling are intricately entwined. From the very first notes, a kind of stillness falls, and the face lights up in response to such clarity of vision.
More than a new group, PlainsPeak represents two profound points of return for Irabagon, an artist known for his endless curiosity and technical daring. First, it marks a reunion with Russ Johnson, who played on Irabagon’s very first album, Outright!, in 2008. At the time, Irabagon had just completed his studies at Juilliard in New York and was seeking to deepen his craft by playing alongside more seasoned improvisers. He began informal weekly sessions with Johnson and pianist Kris Davis, laying the foundation for a creative partnership that would come full circle years later.
Johnson, who relocated to Wisconsin in the 2010s to take a teaching position, quickly became a pillar of the fervent Chicago improvisational music community, a scene that, in Irabagon’s view, offered something essential and grounding. “When I decided to move back to Chicago,” Irabagon recalls, “I knew I wanted to reconnect with Russ.”
True to form, Irabagon allows nothing to unfold by accident. Every compositional decision, every ensemble configuration, seems guided by a larger artistic philosophy. Even the band’s name, PlainsPeak, reveals layers of intent. On one level, it references geography, “Given the coastlines, we’re in the middle,” he says. “Chicago is the peak of the Great Plains.” But read quickly, the name becomes a play on words, “plain speak”—an apt metaphor for the group’s stripped-down, two-horn sound and its honest, direct voice. This is Irabagon’s first Chicago-based ensemble under his own name, and it’s a compelling document of the vast expressive potential of this compact format.
For this project, Irabagon leaves behind the array of rare and esoteric saxophones he has previously explored, including the burly bass saxophone, the rare mezzo-soprano, and the hummingbird-like sopranissimo soprillo, and returns to the alto, his first horn. “I originally intended to play tenor, especially considering Chicago’s rich tenor sax tradition,” he explains. “But I played alto on that first record with Russ, and ultimately, that felt like the right call.”
Throughout the album, the compositions serve as windows into Irabagon’s deep relationship with his city, each track shaped by an attentive, almost obsessive observation of his surroundings. Take “Buggin’ the Bug,” for example, a shuffle-inflected blues march that predates the project but takes on new meaning in its current setting. “When the cicadas emerged last summer in the Midwest, I thought, ‘Wait a second, this is it,’” Irabagon recalls. The track channels the restless energy of that seasonal explosion, while also showcasing the powerful synergy between Sommers and Hall. “They’re the A-team for any kind of pure Chicago music,” he adds. “I hadn’t heard them cut loose like this before. I wanted the groove, but also a looseness that breathes.”
What emerges from PlainsPeak is not merely a jazz album, but a kind of cartography, an emotional and sonic map of a place, drawn through the eyes of an artist deeply attuned to its rhythms, textures, and idiosyncrasies. Track by track, Irabagon invites the listener into a Chicago that is not postcard-perfect but alive, complex, and endlessly inspiring. It is a joy to be transported into this world, to wander its streets, absorb its atmospheres, and see the city anew through Irabagon’s singular lens.
Here, the pleasure is total. One listens. One breathes. One marvels.
Thierry De Clemensat
Member at Jazz Journalists Association
USA correspondent for Paris-Move and ABS magazine
Editor in chief – Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News
PARIS-MOVE, July 7th 2025
Follow PARIS-MOVE on X
::::::::::::::::::::::::
Musicians :
Jon Irabagon, saxophone
Russ Johnson, trumpett
Clarke Sommers, bass
Dana Hall, drums
Tracklist :
Someone to Someone
Buggin’ the Bug
Malort is my Shepherd
At What a Price Garlic
Tiny Miracles ( at funeral for a friend)
The Pulsman
Bonus track