There are times when the music of Jon Irabagon doesn’t have its own sound so much as its own motion. He shapes melody by contorting the cadence, and it’s why his music often sounds avant-garde and unconventional, yet possesses a tunefulness that’s tough to deny. Recorded live at the 2013 Peitz Festival, It Takes All Kinds does nothing to contradict that assessment. The jack-in-the-box cadence of “Cutting Corners” is a strangely catchy tune that is as much twist as bop. “Vestiges” is a car undauntedly speeding straight up to red lights. “Elusive” is a series of tangential comments lacking a central thesis and slurred with an agreeable drawl. And then there’s the punches in bunches of “Quintessential Kitten,” ended with a big flurry at the finish.
The veteran rhythm section of Altschul and Helias have no difficulty cracking the code of Irabagon’s emerging method of communication. This is not ordinary music.