THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Aaron Irwin’s ninth album (after) is a collection of works inspired by poetry as interactions between sound and verse that weave together melancholy, effervescence, and at times, anxiety sparked by chaos. Creating a collective musical voice that is direct, honest, and unique, composer, saxophonist, and clarinetist Irwin is joined by Mike Baggetta (guitar) and Jeff Hirshfield (drums).
Irwin’s longstanding interest in reading and understanding poetry was given room to breathe during the pandemic. He credits his teachers and classmates (Brooklyn Poets, Gotham Writers) with providing a much-needed outlet. “During the suddenly virtual world we all lived in during Covid, I realized the similarities between music and poetry,” he says. “Beyond the cliché, it is another layered world of expression and allows for an entirely different interpretation of emotional range in the attempt to give form to the intangible.”
The album is titled (after), in reference to the practice in poetry of writing new works inspired by, or in conversation with, an existing work. The opening track, Recuerdo (after Edna St. Vincent Millay), brings to life the joy and whimsy of each instrument’s voice in the beauty of the quotidian. Baggetta’s guitar shines here, providing steadiness, twists, and verve.
Three pieces on the album include the inspiration poem itself spoken as part of the presentation. Frederick Douglass (after Robert Hayden) opens with the poem orated by Bonita Oliver — not long in duration, but captures in its sparse lines the life’s work of the great abolitionist, “This freedom, this liberty, this beautiful and terrible thing…” The music that follows brings Irwin into the forefront of the avant-folk jazz genre. The Hill (after Joshua Mehigan) includes the poem as well, read by its Brooklyn-based award-winning author. The comfort of the poem’s spoken rhythms is separated by musical passages featuring Irwin on bass clarinet alongside his bandmates, one of the four pieces on the album with this instrumentation.
The aural landscape reflects its inspirational verse formally in its structure as well as the interpretation of its meaning for the composer. The closing piece on the album, The President Visits the Storm (after Shane McCrae), joins the conversation the poem is itself already in to call out the absurd and seek to make sense where sense seems to have abandoned us.
Critically acclaimed saxophonist, multi-woodwind player, and composer Irwin is a compelling voice of his generation. Known as a lyrical alto saxophonist and a compelling original composer, Irwin is a sought-after commodity in the New York jazz scene. In addition to leading his own groups, he performs with many prominent voices in the jazz and contemporary classical community including Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society as well as a host of others. He was featured in Cicily Janus’s 2010 book The New Face of Jazz, teaches as an adjunct saxophone professor at Towson University in Maryland.”
