Jonah Parzen-Johnson’s restlessness proves inviting

The virtuosic saxophonist plays at Communication on March 21 with opener Asumaya.

Chicago-born baritone saxophonist Jonah Parzen-Johnson creates worlds with his music. There is an ebb and flow to his compositions that feels distinct and lifelike, conjuring up imagined scenes of perpetual motion through a playful musical approach that has historically mixed jazz, ambient, and experimental electronic work. Now living in Brooklyn, Parzen-Johnson has earned a hard-won reputation as a road warrior, having played in numerous countries and continents over the course of his career. That level of transience informs the composer’s work in profound ways that are difficult to define, but easy to feel. 

You’re Never Really Alone, Parzen-Jonhson’s recently released album, is a more minimalistic affair than some of the composer’s previous offerings. Circular breathing has played a central role in many of his releases, and continues to across Alone‘s eight tracks, compelling listeners to hang onto each held note as Parzen-Johnson’s uneasy-but-commanding instrumental work instills various flavors of anticipation. Dread (“There Is So Much I’m Afraid Of”), longing (“The Courage Song”), and tempered suspense (“Not Writing About This”) all play their roles across the album, occasionally in tandem (“Everyone Is Somewhere,” “What They Love”) and occasionally in isolation. Intimately stark, You’re Never Really Alone still manages to convey an expanse of emotion, experience, and eccentricity despite its sax-and-flute-only limitations.

To commemorate the release of You’re Never Really Alone, Parzen-Johnson will be playing a celebratory show on Thursday, March 21 at Communication. Like all shows at Communication, masks and proof of vaccination are required for entry.

Improbably, You’re Never Really Alone‘s commitment to minimalism is every bit as arresting as the playful maximalism of Parzen-Johnson’s last three studio albums (Remember When Things Were Better Tomorrow, I Try To Remember Where I Come From, and Imagine Giving Up). Though the minimalism isn’t unprecedented, with the saxophonist’s earlier records (Michiana, Look Like You’re Not Looking) demonstrating the keen awareness of compositional form that has served Parzen-Johnson well.

With over a decade’s worth of albums under his belt, Parzen-Johnson has expanded, subverted, and refined his identity, with that experience coming across most plainly on the superlative 2023 record Friendship Music For Turkey, a two-track collaborative effort with Turkish experimentalist Berke Can Özcan manning percussion and electronics. Friendship Music For Turkey was recorded live and provides prospective attendees of the show a clear window into how Parzen-Johnson operates in a live setting. Like the rest of his discography, it’s a thrilling listen that possesses a few built-in qualities that makes it feel genuinely distinct.

Luke Basseuner’s Asumaya project will open the show, kicking off an interesting few weeks for the musician that will also include a Wisconsin Film Festival screening of his stop-motion animated short Unified on April 6 as part of the “Tales and Tones from Wisconsin’s Own” program. Asumaya’s music should be a perfect complement to Parzen-Johnson with Basseuner’s music also frequently toying with the perceived barriers of what constitutes minimalism and maximalism. Basseuner, like Parzen-Johnson, is well-traveled, and that wealth of lived experience and cultural immersion can be observed in Asumaya’s subversive, far-reaching approach to dynamics, structure, and atmospherics (the thrilling unpredictability of  “Chess,” from the 2018 album Omniphobic, is a strong example).

Both Parzen-Johnson and Asumaya actively subvert genre barriers in ways that feel progressive and—in a sense—community-minded, by integrating disparate approaches into cohesive wholes. And that feels like something worth celebrating.