Name: Jon Irabagon Quartet
Start: 2024-10-18T19:30:00-05:00
Location: Arts + Literature Laboratory

Arts + Literature Laboratory welcomes The Jon Irabagon Quartet on Friday, October 18, 2024 at 7:30pm. Tickets $25 general admission or $20 student/ALL Member in advance online, or $30 at the door for everyone.
The Jon Irabagon Quartet makes its midwestern debut for this tour, unveiling new originals and reworked standards while celebrating their recent release Recharge the Blade. The evening promises to bring familiarity as well as unpredictability in a celebration of both group interaction and unique and individual voices.
Jon Irabagon — mezzo soprano saxophone
Matt Mitchell — piano
Chris Lightcap — bass
Dan Weiss — drums
First-generation Filipino-American Jon Irabagon (b. 1978, Chicago) has been influenced by the self-empowering and individualistic philosophies and aesthetic of the great AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) ensembles as well as the historic world-class tenor saxophone lineage from his hometown. Equally adept at composing for rising stars in new music and the most intricate modern jazz ensemble, Irabagon builds on this foundation by adding modern classical and late-period John Coltrane to his compositional base, focusing primarily on mixed chamber ensembles to take advantage of hand-chosen musicians' voices and attitudes.
After earning a Bachelor of Music from DePaul University, Irabagon continued his education by earning a Master of Arts from the Manhattan School of Music and completing post-graduate studies in the jazz program at Juilliard, where he received an Artist Diploma. However, Irabagon’s accomplishments do not end with his education. Irabagon was also the winner of the 2008 Thelonious Monk Saxophone Competition, winner of the Rising Star award in Downbeat Magazine for both alto and tenor saxophones, and the recipient of a Philippine Presidential Award, the highest civilian honor an overseas Filipino can receive in commemoration for their contributions to the perception of Filipinos worldwide.