Jon Irabagon/Dan Oestreicher

Jon Irabagon
Raw Dog
Corbett vs Demsey CvD CD 127

Although experimented with by reed players over the years from Adrian Rollini (1903-1956), from the 1920s until his death and Vinny Gollia, starting in the 1970s, the bass saxophone doesn’t have a rich history in  Jazz. Even thinner are solo and duo sessions featuring bass saxophones. Multi-reedist Jon Irabagon has set out to remedy the situation. Known for his collaborations with everyone from Patricia Brennan to Dave Douglas, Raw Dog is a four-track solo Chicago recital from last year. Two years earlier Irabagon hooked up with New Orleans-based bass saxophonist and bass flutist Dan Oestreicher, who plays with Trombone Shorty and Jeff Albert for a series of Windy City duets.

The Irabagon-Oestreicher duo evolves in more conventional – for free music – form. As the two tones intertwine, contrast and challenge, emphasis is not so much on the snotty and snarly low pitches expected from the reeds, but the unexpected timbral transformations and extensions that can be extracted from the blend. Besides near violin-like pitched glissandi and floating puffs from the instruments’ high and mid-ranges, percussive tongue stops and slaps are heard. As the two snake around one another, shading is heard with the outputs stacked on top of one another. Variegated, but also relentless horizontal, a veneer of almost foot tapping rhythm is also present.

“Daycare Infantry” is a fine instance of this with constant jumping and juddering reconfigurations. One sax propels elephantine tongue slaps while the others creates high-pitched trumpeting. The evolution to car-horn-like honks and thickened rhino-like snorts is confirmed with a final textural weaving.

Turns from this subterrestrial procedure is highlighted on “Walking Dream” and the so-called radio edit of “Sugar Rush”. With Oestreicher’s timbres a combination of hefty and highfalutin, the track is further expanded with key rattles and flat-line puffs. Meanwhile Irabagon snakes around him with squeaks, smears and yowling split tones. Although the emphasis is on cadences as, Irabagon interjects honks and sighs, Oestreicher’s output stays tonal.

Chunky snorts and honks on this tracks are concentrated into broad R&B-like vamps on the subsequent “Sugar Rush’, with the pressure intensified after an extended silent pause as drummer Mike Ptride joins the two for the radio edit. Pride’s down and dirty funky beat allows the two saxophonists to break up the time with antiphony between high-pitched reed yelps or elephantine rumbles.

Recorded live, like the other disc, Raw Dog contains as many textures, timbres and transitions as Saturday’s Child. But this time they’re all produced by Irabagon’s solo bass sax. Interpreting two compositions by Anthony Braxton and two by Julius Hemphill.

Despite two composers’ visions there isn’t much differences in presentation. Loud and fast, quick and at an andante pace, textures and timbres come bubbling from Irabagon’s horn. Themes are stated and often recapitulated with touches of lyricism. The remainder of each sequence is devoted  to extemporaneous reed tone examinations and expressions. Snarls, snuffles are bugling stops are examined and retired, as are squeaks, flutters, bites that soar above the bass saxophone’s expected range.

Among the ascending and descending tones, melody snatches as well as near foot-tapping beats appear and quickly vanish. The only pivot is heard on Hemphill’s “#2” , since its languid and multi-textural introduction stands out. At one point creating a reed doppelganger of himself, Irabagon’s wide, bulky variations alternate with slack key percussion as do near conga-drum-like reed slaps.

The bass saxophone isn’t likely to take the place of other saxophones in a combo, big band or as a preferred solo instrument. However Irabagon, and to a lesser extent Oestreicher, have shown the many quirky and quixotic ways its output can be twisted with original ideas and techniques.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Raw: 1. Composition 40M 2. Composition 23M 3. #2 4. Kansas City Line

Personnel: Raw: Jon Irabagon (bass saxophone)

Track Listing: Saturday’s: 1. Mood Swings 2. Daycare Infantry 3. Medley: Molasses Candyland/Gripe 4. Walking Dream 5. Sugar Rush 6. Sugar Rush (Radio Edit)*

Personnel: Saturday’s: Jon Irabagon (bass saxophone); Dan Oestreicher ( bass saxophone, bass flute) and Mike Pride (drums and percussion)*