Join composer, baritone saxophonist and electronic musician Jonah Parzen-Johnson as he heads to Hungry Brainon Thursday, February 20. He’s currently on tour behind his fourth album, Imagine Giving Up, released via We Jazz Records.
Jonah combines distilled melodies on baritone saxophone with hardware synths and samplers that he manipulates live with his feet. Using circular breathing and extended saxophone techniques he creates music that is both sonically experimental and musically familiar.
Jonah Parzen-Johnson makes music that challenges listeners with experimental electronic textures and embraces them with warm approachable melodies. His solo performances are a deeply intimate experience, as he endeavors to share who he is, how he see’s our world, and the temporary moments of community that we can all embrace together. In his hands baritone saxophone and hardware electronics become a vehicle for “de facto folk songs,” (Bandcamp Daily) as if he is, “constructing a whole musical town from specific, character-driven notes”.
Since 2015, Jonah has toured over 40 thousand miles, by himself. He has performed on 4 continents, and in 9 countries. Everywhere from Jazz festivals to DIY noise clubs, living rooms to Contemporary Art museums. In July 2017, he released his third full length solo album, I Try To Remember Where I Come From. The release has been described as, “haunted by abstraction but guided by a compassionate pulse,” (New York Times), as it, “vividly channels free-jazz with elements of improvisation and composition, combining to create a sustained meditative mood, transporting listeners to another world.” (Downbeat Magazine).
In June 2019 he followed up the release with his first live recording, “Helsinki 8.12.18”, an exciting preview of the music to come on his upcoming album LP, Imagine Giving Up, out January 2020 on We Jazz Records. Jonah is a long-time Brooklyn resident, but his circular breathing, multi-phonics and inclusively experimental style owe a debt to Chicago, the city where he was raised. His devotion to an almost vocal approach places him in new territory for the instrument. Paired with a one-of-a-kind compositional style that utilize analog synths, and hardware samplers & sequencers, Jonah continues to find himself ready to share his own unique musical world.
Imagine Giving Up track list:
1. Find The Feeling
2. Focus Re-Focus
3. Everything Is Everything Else
4. Up
5. The Smile When You Fall
6. Stand Still
Credits:
Jonah Parzen-Johnson, Baritone Saxophone
& Hardware Electronics
Composed by Jonah Parzen-Johnson
Produced by Jonah Parzen-Johnson & Matti Nives
Recorded & Mixed by Aaron Nevezie at The Bunker
Mastered by Alex DeTurk at Strange Weather & The Bunker