John Irabagon
Raw Dog
Forthcoming, May 2026
It is with utmost pleasure that Corbett vs. Dempsey announces the release of Raw Dog, a compact disc featuring solos for contrabass saxophone by Jon Irabagon.
One of the leading lights of contemporary creative saxophone music, Jon Irabagon (b. 1978) hails from Chicago, made his name in New York, and has returned to the Windy City with decisive ferocity, joining the city's bustling scene as an active participant and bandleader. Known for many of his groups, including Mostly Other People Do The Killing and PlainsPeak, as well as membership in ensembles led by Mary Halvorson, Dave Douglas, and Barry Altschul, Irabagon is a ceaselessly inventive horn player and dazzling technician with a devilish sense of humor. To experience Irabagon in the purest setting, CvsD invited him to present a concert of unaccompanied solos on his bottom-end horn, which sounded positively elephantine in the gallery's reverberant walls. Furthermore, an invitation to consider two composers, Julius Hemphill and Anthony Braxton, led Irgabagon to search the vaults for lesser known charts by these iconic figures, two compositions each. The results were mind-blowing and ear-juddering, offering new perspectives on Hemphill's deep blues feel and Braxton's erector set structures. Deftly recorded in all their bodacious ambiance, these contrabass meditations are both homages to the music's history and icebreakers into its oceanic future.
Jon Irabagon, bass saxophone
- Composition 40M (9:10/Anthony Braxton)
- Composition 23M (9:27/Anthony Braxton)
- #2 (9:54/Julius Hemphill)
- Kansas City Line (5:08/Julius Hemphill)
Recorded by Rob Frye at Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, on September 20, 2025.
Mixed and mastered by Alex Inglizian at Experimental Sound Studio.
Design by Michael Dyer/Remake.
Cover art by Aaron Curry.
Thanks also to Aaron Curry for the title.
Interior photo by John Corbett.
CD produced by John Corbett and Jim Dempsey.
CvsDCD127