10/27/2014 (Solo Improvisation documented in Colombia, Missouri)

Neil Welch, Continuous Resonance Project
Date: 10/27/2014
Location: A choir room inside a Methodist Church.  Colombia, Missouri
Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Notes:

I had a recording sessions at a Methodist church this morning with the Rich Pellegrin Quintet, plus his fantastic New Music Ensemble from the University of Missouri.  During the inevitably long wait for set-up time before the session began, I found a quiet spot to practice in a choir room in this large church.  There was an old upright piano in the center of the room with chairs placed around it.  I practiced for a half hour or so and then decided to record a piece with my mic placed inside the piano.


The image “17” (2009) accompanying today’s post by James Welling.

10/17/2014 (Solo Improvisation from Ann Arbor, MI)

Neil Welch, Continuous Resonance Project
Date: 10/17/2014
Location: The laundry room of a friend’s basement in Ann Arbor, MI
Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Notes:

This morning I had about an hour to practice before we needed to head out on the road again.  We spent a fantastic and very productive few days in Ann Arbor, and this morning I felt very eager to practice.  I seized the opportunity to do some laundry and practiced down in the basement with the washer and dryer. When I threw the wet clothes into the dryer and turned it on, I was immediately captivated by the sound of this prehistoric machine.  It was likely from the 50’s and had only a single knob in the center to pull. The machine had a fantastic mechanical quality to its sound and hummed with a low Ab. 

-Neil

10/17/2014 (Solo Improvisation documented in Milwaukee, WI)

Neil Welch, Continuous Resonance Project
Date: 10/15/2014
Location: A park beside Lake Michigan in Milwaukee, WI
Instrument: Tenor saxophone


Notes:

We drove with fantastic, clear weather during the first week of this Bad Luck tour.  Unfortunately the weather then turned and we were met with day after day of heavy rain across the the North-Central states. This morning there was finally a break from the rain, and before heading back out onto the road we decided to walk along the banks of Lake Michigan.  There were hundreds of geese resting in a park beside the lake and the air felt cool and clean.  I decided to grab my horn and improvise a piece near in this park.  I set up my mic in the crotch of a large Birch tree and recorded this quiet improvisation before heading back on the road towards Michigan.  Geese, cars and a large dog can be heard in the background.

–Neil

10/07/2014 (Solo Improvsiation documented in Missoula, MT)

Neil Welch, Continuous Resonance Project
Date: 10/07/2014
Location: A practice room at the University of Montana.  Missoula, MT
Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Notes:

This improvisation was documented on the first day of my Bad Luck band, 31-day tour across the US.  Our first stop along this journey was a day long residency at the University of Missouri.  After our first clinic I found myself with a free hour of time and decided to practice in the school of music.  Immediately after I began playing I was struck with the absolutely unchanged dynamic of struggling to practice in a music building while being surrounded by other musicians.  There were conflicting sounds, moods, and textures all around me–a bassoon practicing an etude, a pianist playing some virtuosic repertoire, a trumpeter repeating a melodic figure over and over, and a saxophonist trying a 2-bar jazz phrase in all 12 keys.  There was a level of competition and ego that was just so palpable in the air.  I had not experienced this feeling since leaving college some 7 years ago, and it seems that this experience transcended time and location.

I improvised alongside my fellow musicians during this piece.  I tried to envision them as actual participants in a larger, collective improvisation we were working on together.  In a way I always felt that this was happening while practicing in such an environment during college.  We could all hear one another, and though we had our own end goals in mind there was no denying that the auditory interruptions influenced the way each of us practiced.

-Neil