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PlainsPeak: Someone to Someone

By Glenn Astarita
August 26, 2025
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Track review of "Someone to Someone"

Jon Irabagon

saxophone, tenor

" data-original-title="" title="">Jon Irabagon's PlainsPeak delivers a soulful homecoming via a love letter to Chicago with its debut, Someone to Someone. Ditching the tech-heavy sprawl of his earlier work like Server Farm (Irabbagast, 2025), the leader returns to Chicago's gritty roots with a lean acoustic quartet that is all heart and sly wit.

Irabagon, a Chicago-born saxophonist and winner of the

Thelonious Monk

piano
1917 - 1982

" data-original-title="" title="">Thelonious Monk Competition, leads with his alto's warm expressive tone. He is joined by trumpeter

Russ Johnson

trumpet
b.1965

" data-original-title="" title="">Russ Johnson, a longtime collaborator with a knack for lyrical precision; bassist

Clark Sommers

bass
b.1977

" data-original-title="" title="">Clark Sommers, whose grooves anchor with Midwest heft; and drummer

Dana Hall

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Dana Hall—a rhythmic sage. PlainsPeak is a tight-knit crew that plays like they have been jamming in Chicago clubs forever.

The title track "Someone to Someone" opens with a tender melody as Irabagon and Johnson trade lines like old friends swapping stories over late-night coffee. There is an intimacy here that draws you into their musical conversation, each phrase building on the last with effortless chemistry amid a bluesy march. However, Sommers and Hall fast-forward the motif with an infectious free-form swagger via surging horn choruses. The track pulses with urban energy, evoking those sweltering afternoons when the whole city seems to buzz with restless life.

Overall, the album succeeds because it never forgets that the best music, like the best cities, is built on human connection. It is a place; a city's soul distilled in sound. Like any great urban landscape, it reveals new secrets with each visit.

Learn more about our star rating system

Track Listing

Someone to Someone; Buggin' The Bug; Mal?rt Is My Shepherd; At What Price Garlic; Tiny Miracles (at a Funeral for a Friend); The Pulseman.

Personnel

Jon Irabagon

saxophone, tenor

Russ Johnson

trumpet

Clark Sommers

bass

Dana Hall

drums

Additional Instrumentation

Jon Irabagon: alto saxophone.

Album information

Title: Someone to Someone | Year Released: 2025 | Record Label: Irabbagast Records

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