ISU jazz director turns son’s NICU journey into new album
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POCATELLO — The relentless beeps, alarms and mechanical rhythms of a neonatal intensive care unit might not seem like the makings of a musical composition.
For Idaho State University Director of Jazz Studies Jonathan Armstrong, those sounds became part of a deeply personal work inspired by his premature son’s nine-month fight to survive.
Armstrong will release his new album, “Voluntary Breath,” on Oct. 2. The recording features Armstrong performing alongside the Idaho State-Civic Symphony under conductor Nell Flanders.
The album features Armstrong’s 30-minute composition for tenor saxophone soloist and orchestra and draws heavily on the experience he and his wife, Erin, endured after their son, Breen, was born nearly four months premature in January 2021, weighing just 1 pound, 4.8 ounces.
Breen spent almost nine months in neonatal intensive care, receiving treatment at Portneuf Medical Center in Pocatello and Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City.
“The NICU soundscape was brutal,” Armstrong said. “We were told how sensitive preemies are to stimulation, and we agonized over the invisible damage from these sonic assaults.”
Armstrong began singing and humming to his son, incorporating the notes and rhythms of the medical equipment surrounding him. He hoped to bring calm to an environment filled with machinery and alarms.
Over time, those improvisations developed into a lullaby.
“When we were finally able to hold him, I would feel the resonance of my sung notes vibrating in his fragile body,” Armstrong said.
Those experiences eventually became the foundation for “Voluntary Breath,” which incorporates elements of jazz, classical, and world music, meditation, and music therapy.
Armstrong also drew inspiration from a dream he had before his son’s birth. In it, a shaman-like figure floated above a mountain lake in meditation while playing a guitar-like instrument. As the figure changed the instrument’s tuning, different patterns of ripples spread across the water.
In the composition, Armstrong’s tenor saxophone represents that central figure, sending musical “ripples” through the orchestra. The work includes variations on the lullaby he sang to his son, along with rhythms and melodies Armstrong transcribed from NICU machinery.
Even the language used during medical rounds found its way into the music. One recurring rhythm is based on the phrase Armstrong and his wife heard repeatedly describing Breen’s age at birth: “23 weeks, 6 days gestation.”
Other portions were inspired by medical records read aloud during rounds and the bewilderment Armstrong felt trying to understand the terminology doctors and nurses used while discussing his son’s condition.
Armstrong describes the album as a tribute to the medical professionals who cared for Breen and an expression of gratitude to the family members, friends and others who supported the family throughout the ordeal.
The project also became an ISU collaboration. Commercial music faculty and students helped record the album, while ISU alumni created its cover design and artwork.
“Voluntary Breath” will be co-released by Los Angeles-based Orenda Records and ISU’s City Creek Records.
Listeners can review the full credits, preview “Voluntary Breath” and preorder the album here.
Armstrong has previously released three albums on Orenda Records as a bandleader, but he describes “Voluntary Breath” as the most ambitious project of his career, one born from an experience that began not on a concert stage, but beside his infant son’s hospital bed.
Armstrong also collaborated with local singer Lenet Neifert on her Juneteenth anthem.
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