American, Brooklyn-based baritone sax player-flutist Jonah Parzen-Johnson offers on his solo album You’re Never Really Alone eight intimate compositions «carefully crafted to cut to the core of what this music is all about». Parzen-Johnson’s solo performances were always a deeply intimate experience, and while he was investigating textures and forms he was also embracing them with warm and captivating melodies. He endeavors to share who he is, how he sees our world, and the temporary moments of community that we can all embrace together.

«For me, being connected to those spontaneous communities is the best part of being an experimental artist. Everything I make is in service to the cultivation of that community, our community. Without it, my music doesn’t exist and because of that I can joyfully say to each person, at every concert, that we made this together», Parzen-Johnson concluded.

You’re Never Really Alone is the seventh solo album of Parzen-Johnson, but unlike his previous album for the Finnish label We Jazz, Imagine Giving Up (2020), the new album is totally acoustic, with no electronics. But both albums highlight Parzen-Johnson’s commanding gift for sketching profoundly evocative and spiritual textures, stories, meditations and atmospheres while carefully exhausting the sonic palettes of the baritone sax and the flute, with extended breathing techniques such as circular breathing, multiphonics, and explosive levels of sound. This impressive and thoughtful album celebrates the power of one as well as the yearning for the elusive threads that unite us all.

Eyal Hareuveni

Jonah Parzen-Johnson (baritone saxophone, flute)