Jazz Articles about Neil Welch

About Neil Welch

Album Review

Rich Pelegrin with Neil Welch: Before After

Read "Before After" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
April 19, 2026

Pianist Rich Pellegrin has fashioned something of a template for creating recorded music--go into the studio in the summer months (when teaching duties have abated somewhat) and lay down a bunch of tracks. Two albums' worth. Then he releases the music a year or two apart, as separate CDs (or vinyl discs or downloads). This was the mode for Solitude: Solo Improvisations (2021) and Passage: Solo Improvisations II (2022), both on OA2 Records; and so it goes with Topography (2024) and ...

Album Review

Rich Pellegrin: Topography (featuring Neil Welch)

Read "Topography (featuring Neil Welch)" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
October 8, 2024

Whidbey Island, nestled in the nook of Puget Sound, must be an inspiring place. Pianist Rich Pellegrin finds it so. He has recorded two solo works here, Solitude (OA2 Records, 2021), (review here) and Passage (OA2 Records, 2022), (review here). Both of these works--recorded in the same session--have a feeling of serenity, of an escape from the mind-numbing necessities of modern life; they elicit a cool, pastoral frame of mind, inspired by the isolation, climate, topography, and the verdant flora ...

Album Review

Neil Welch: The Ink Around It

Read "The Ink Around It" reviewed by Ian Gwin

by Ian Gwin
November 17, 2021

Music is ephemeral by nature. The conical airflow of a saxophone could be nothing more than “airy charm"—as the magician Prospero in The Tempest might have it—but this fails to substantiate its power. Though the rousing craft of Seattle composer and saxophonist Neil Welc does. In his acclaimed duo Bad Luck with drummer Chris Icasiano, he's “plucked up / the pine and cedar" through a wildly generative approach to the tenor. Combining profound humility with a tectonic techique, Welch approaches ...

Album Review

Bad Luck: Four

by Ian Gwin
April 5, 2019

For over a decade, Seattle-based duo Bad Luck—that's Neil Welch (saxophones, electronics) and Chris Icasiano (drums)—have packed and unpacked their deceptively simple formula of drums and saxophone. Through their deep musical partnership, they continue to recast the mold of contemporary music. Over countless fiery performances and three full-length releases, the depth of the duo's compositional improvisations has steadily developed, starting from the catch-as-catch-can edge of their classically free-jazz 2009 self-titled debut, moving the sprawling, heavy-metal intensity of 2011's double-album Two, ...

Album Review

Neil Welch: Twelve Tiny Explosions

Read "Twelve Tiny Explosions" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
February 3, 2013

It's good when an album title tells it like it is. Twelve Tiny Explosions is Seattle tenor saxophonist Neil Welch's third solo saxophone album and consists of a dozen tunes, each of which can be described as an “explosion." Welch's technical ability on his instrument of choice, sheer power and inventive musicality combine to create a challenging, mind-blowing and often rather lovely battery of sounds.As with his Boxworks (Table & Chairs, 2011), Welch fashions every sound from his ...

Album Review

Neil Welch: Boxwork

Read "Boxwork" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
May 26, 2012

Adjectives like “extraordinary" or “stunning" are overused epithets these days, their currency diminished. Such a shame, because Boxwork, from Washington State saxophonist Neil Welch, is stunning and extraordinary--not in the devalued contemporary sense of “quite interesting" but in the good, old-fashioned sense. From its beautifully handcrafted packaging to Welch's handwritten notes to the music itself, Boxwork is a lovingly produced artifact, a truly creative mix of artistic endeavors.The album's genesis is itself extraordinary. In mid-2009, Welch and his ...

Album Review

Neil Welch: Sleeper

Read "Sleeper" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
April 19, 2012

Sleeper is a quality product from noted Seattle new music and jazz saxophonist Neil Welch, who composed the lone 28-minute title track based on an incident that occurred during the US presence in Iraq. Sans rhythm section, Welch paints a vivid storyline, interspersing microtonal extended notes with deft subtleties and touches upon contemporary classical frameworks. Since the plot is based on a military endeavor, he generates an impassioned and intertwining progression of musical events throughout.At times listening to ...