Abbey Blackwell

Neil Welch: The Ink Around It

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 ...