Saxist Jon Irabagon has made a name for himself as a teammate in Tom Harrell’s albums and concerts. Here, he brings in his employer to reverse the roles for an impressive recording along with Luis Perdomo/p, Yasushi Nakamura/b and Rudy Royston/dr as well as showing his life as a solo artist.
On Behind the Sky, he divides the songs up pretty evenly between soprano and tenor, actually mixing both together on bass lined lick of “Behind The Sky.” On tenor, his tone is full on the spacy and edgy “One Wish” and with Harrell creates some rich harmonies on the lively latin lilting “Still Water” which is also highlighted by Perdomo’s piano work. The two get a bit Monkish on the oblique “Obelisk” and when Irabagon switches to soprano on “Eternal Springs,” Harrell’s flugelhorn creates ripples of trickling ideas. Irabagon’s soprano works well on the softer pieces, teaming up with Perdomo on a lovely and gentle “Lost Ship At The Edge of Sea.” Excellent post bop material here.
Irabagon sticks to the high pitched sopranino saxophone for a solo album that feels more like an experiment with sounds than actually making music. He uses the sounds of the pads for a rhythmic “What Have We Here” while using his mouthpiece to mimic a landing spacecraft during “Revvv.” The altissimo of altissimo’s is reached is “The Best Kind of Sad” and the ducks are called during long tones of “Acrobat.” There’s actually a nice melody on “Amiwinxtrous” but that was a passing fancy as the album closes on the squawking “Alps.” More of and exercise than a concerto.
Irabagast Records