Sunday, July 29, 2012

Jonah Parzen-Johnson: Michiana (Primary 2012)


BARITONE SAXOPHONIST, JONAH PARZEN-JOHNSON, RELEASES HIS DEBUT SOLO SAXOPHONE ALBUM, “MICHIANA” ON PRIMARY RECORDS“Parzen-Johnson’s plainspoken compositional vision impresses as much as his formidable command of circular breathing and other outré techniques.”
- TimeOut NY
“His unaccompanied playing captures the sentiment of an old Polaroid, long-ago happiness fading into the melancholy of memory.”
- Philadelphia City Paper

“Parzen-Johnson has distilled a lengthy list of influences into a singularly elegant presentation of unaccompanied saxophone.”
- Mountain Express

Brooklyn NY – Primary Records is proud to announce the release of experimental folk saxophonist, Jonah Parzen-Johnson’s debut solo saxophone recording, Michiana. “I have had an obsession with the solitary nature and focused power of solo performance for as long as I can remember,” muses the 24 year old saxophonist in his apartment in northern Brooklyn, “but I have struggled with how to utilize the format in a way that resonated with my musical aesthetic.” Although there is an important history of solo saxophonists hailing from Jonah’s home-town of Chicago, he first found inspiration in the unadorned voices of Appalachian Music and lo-fi musicians like Bill Calahan.

http://jonahparzen-johnson.com