Jon Irabagon and Quartet Brilliantly Go in Every Direction
As a composer and bandleader, Jon Irabagon wants to open your ears to styles co-mingling. His heart as a musician is big enough to feel and do it all.
jon irabagon
Music/Feature Sub Head/Featured: Top of Home Page/Features/Lists/Music Features/PopMatters Picks/The Best Music of 2025
The 20 Best Jazz Albums of 2025
The future of the genre lies in places where it’s less insular and more artistically adventurous. The 20 best jazz albums are outstanding examples of that impulse.
Jazz Saxophonist Jon Irabagon Is a Magician and Shapeshifter
It’s a blessing that artists like Jon Irabagon are unafraid to defy convention, playing music both challenging and satisfying, rich in feeling but daring to have an edge.
Featured: Top of Home Page/Features/Lists/Music/Music Features/PopMatters Picks/The Best Music of 2022
The 20 Best Jazz Albums of 2022
Jazz, born of the creative brilliance of Black American culture and now wonderfully global, is passionately alive in 2022. These are the year’s best jazz albums.
JazzMatters: The Best New Jazz of Autumn 2022
PopMatters jazz critic Will Layman rounds up the best new jazz albums of recent vintage, including some thoughts about the US festival season and the undersung virtuoso Warren Wolf.
The 13 Best Jazz Albums of 2021
Creative, improvised music in the Black American tradition remains in a state of wonder and genre-crossing excitement in the best jazz albums of 2021.
Solo Saxophones for Lonely Times: Jon Irabagon, J.D. Allen, and Jaleel Shaw
Recently, three prominent jazz saxophonists emerged with unaccompanied solo LPs: J.D. Allen, Jon Irabagon, and Jaleel Shaw. Each of these new Covid-era recordings suggests new possibilities.
Dave Douglas Quintet’s ‘Brazen Heart: Live at Jazz Standard’ Sits Cozily Next to Miles Davis’ ‘Plugged Nickel’ Recordings
This is trumpeter/composer Dave Douglas' second quintet, playing its repertoire from memory in eight sets in four nights. Dazzling.
Mostly Other People Do the Killing: Mauch Chunk
Moppa Elliott and his merry band of feather rufflers make a slightly safer album this time around, but it's no less an adventure.
Jon Irabagon: Behind the Sky / Inaction Is an Action
Saxophonist Jon Irabagon unleashes two albums in one day, with one succeeding in doing what the other one sets out to do.