Jonah Parzen-Johnson – ‘You’re Never Really Alone’

By londonjazz on 1 March 2024 • ( Leave a comment )

Jonah Parzen-Johnson – You’re Never Really Alone
(We Jazz Records WJLP64. Album review by Frank Graham)

Originally from Chicago and a former student of the AACM’s Mwata Bowden, Brooklyn-based baritone saxophonist and flautist Jonah Parzen-Johnson is a rare specialist in that most challenging of disciplines, the solo recital. Over the last decade or so he has developed a vocabulary that is uniquely his own, juxtaposing the extended techniques of the avant-garde with a clean-lined melodicism drawn from his parallel interest in folk music.

You’re Never Really Alone is the saxophonist’s third outing for Helsinki’s We Jazz Records, following in the trail of the live Helsinki 8.12.18 and 2022’s Imagine Giving Up, reviewed for LJN by Dick Hovenga. Unlike those earlier recordings, where Parzen-Johnson augmented his solos with a self-built analogue synthesiser and samples, the eight remarkable pieces presented here are entirely acoustic. With no place to hide every note must count, and Parzen-Johnson responds with an emotional directness that is simply impossible to ignore.

The melodic opener “When I Feel Like Myself” reminds me of Jimmy Giuffre’s occasional work on the baritone, Parzen-Johnson’s use of negative space almost as striking as his ability to counterbalance timbral extremes. Midway through the wistful “Not Writing About This” he segues into a series of long, didgeridoo register notes, while the doleful melody of “Everyone Is Somewhere” is embellished with chordal multi-phonics in the style of Albert Mangelsdorff. “There Is So Much I’m Afraid Of” and “There Is So Much I Regret” are pieces for flute, the former characterised by more throaty multi-phonics, the latter possessing a zen-like calm. “The Courage Song” could almost be a battle hymn, Parzen-Johnson’s chest-rattling fog-horn blasts tipping a nod to Mats Gustafsson. Notwithstanding the buzz-saw overtones, “What They Love” again harks back to the folksy side of Giuffre, while the closing “Named For You” might well be Parzen-Johnson’s “Body & Soul”, a virtuosic performance which comes straight from the heart.

Solo saxophone recordings can be something of an acquired taste, but when the artist is as resourceful and creative as Jonah Parzen-Johnson they become essential listening.