Monday February 17 * 7pm * $10 * TICKETS
THE CARIBBEAN (DC) "They're taking Brill Building songs and writing them in invisible ink, turning jazz standards into Twilight Zone episodes, turning folk songs into clouds of fog."
-PopMatters
JONAH PARZEN-JOHNSON (NYC) 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”. 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 utilizes analog synths, and hardware samplers & sequencers, Jonah continues to find himself ready to share his own unique musical world.
MARC MILLER (BALTIMORE) The guitarist for Baltimore polymaths Oxes and jazz trio Microkingdom plays nuanced and richly evocative solo guitar pieces that sound only like him.