The Bad Luck duo returns with a brand new set of music! Tonight’s show celebrates the energy of community-driven collaboration, which two long standing projects on the same bill—Bad Luck (Neil Welch and Chris Icasiano), plus Kin of the Moon (KOTM) Heather Bentley (viola), Leanna Keith (flute, electronics) Kaley Lane-Eaton (piano, electronics, voice).

October 20th: 8-11pm

The Clock-Out Lounge. Tickets and more info to come

French horn improvising master Tom Varner leads a new group at the Racer Sessions. Neil will join up on tenor and bass saxophones. More info to come.

Learn more about the Racer Sessions here.

Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble, featuring the music of Wayne Horvitz. Come and listen to one of Seattle’s most creative working ensembles. This “mini big band” explores composed music as well as visual conduction (a style of instant, live composition). Instrumentation includes saxes, clarinet, french horn, trombones, trumpets, and rhythm section. Neil holds down the bari sax chair! This is a weekly, recurring performance each Monday at the Royal Room.

Royal Room Seattle

5000 Rainier Ave S, Seattle, WA 98118

https://theroyalroomseattle.com/

Ticket price by donation.

Wayne Horvitz leads his longtime project Electric Circus live at the Royal Room. More tickets and info to come soon.

Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble, featuring the music of Wayne Horvitz. Come and listen to one of Seattle’s most creative working ensembles. This “mini big band” explores composed music as well as visual conduction (a style of instant, live composition). Instrumentation includes saxes, clarinet, french horn, trombones, trumpets, and rhythm section. Neil holds down the bari sax chair! This is a weekly, recurring performance each Monday at the Royal Room.

Royal Room Seattle

5000 Rainier Ave S, Seattle, WA 98118

https://theroyalroomseattle.com/

Ticket price by donation.

Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble, featuring the music of Wayne Horvitz. Come and listen to one of Seattle’s most creative working ensembles. This “mini big band” explores composed music as well as visual conduction (a style of instant, live composition). Instrumentation includes saxes, clarinet, french horn, trombones, trumpets, and rhythm section. Neil holds down the bari sax chair! This is a weekly, recurring performance each Monday at the Royal Room.

Royal Room Seattle

5000 Rainier Ave S, Seattle, WA 98118

https://theroyalroomseattle.com/

Ticket price by donation.

Neil performs with the Wayne Horvitz Trio, featuring: Wayne Horvitz—piano, Sheridan Riley—drums, Neil Welch—saxophones. This is an opening set for the great guitarist Fred Frith.

More info HERE

Tickets available at: https://theroyalroomseattle.com/

Ravenna Brewing on Saturday, Feb. 19th from 6-8pm.

This is a straight-ahead jazz gig in an environment that welcomes folks of all ages. I'll be playing saxophone, sharing the stage with Brennan Carter on trumpet (from the band The Dip), along with Evan Woodle on drums and Julian S. on bass. This is a great band, and we'll be playing some standards for your listening enjoyment. Come on out if you'd like to hear some swinging sound.

We’ll play more modern standards, plus works by McCoy Tyner, Gene Ammons and more!

Here to Play returns! Gregg Keplinger (drums), Neil Welch (saxes + electronics), Matt Setzler (alto), Julian Weisman (bass) live at the legendary Blue Moon Bar. Tonight’s music is 100% energy improvisation. Deep 60’s area inspired free music grooves, touring sounds and ecstatic energies. Here to Play open for CSTMR, who celebrate their album release on tonight’s show.

Tickets available at the door. More show info HERE

Mangal is an experimental ensemble conceived by mrudangam artist and composer Rajna Swaminathan, gathering artists across disciplines and locales to collaboratively improvise while pushing the boundaries of their creative process. In English, the word mangal refers to an assemblage of mangroves, which form a chaotic, non-hierarchical rhizome. In Sanskrit, mangal describes harmonious or sacred timing. This imagery of entanglement and serendipity guides a creative space of encounter, transformation, and expansion. This performance brings together a cohort of Seattle-based artists — Zahyr Lauren, Carlos Snaider, Neil Welch, and Ha-Yang Kim — and contributions from visiting artists, including Rajna Swaminathan, Anya Yermakova, and Caroline Davis.

More show info HERE

June 18, 2022 | 8:00 PM

Tickets available at the door or here: $5 - $20 donation in advance/at the door

Location & Contact

In the Chapel Performance Space on the fourth floor of the Good Shepherd Center.

4649 Sunnyside Ave. N.
Seattle WA, 98103
(SW corner of 50th & Sunnyside in Wallingford. Nearest Metro bus stops: 62, 44, 26)

June 16th / Vermillion Gallery and Lounge / 7:30-9:30pm / Entrance fee by sliding scale donation

(Neil’s trio plus the Scrambler conduction large ensemble!)

The newly formed trio features the extraordinary musicians Abbey Blackwell (bass), Greg Campbell (drums and percussion) with Neil Welch (soprano, tenor and bass saxes). This triangulated unit explores Neil’s latest compositions, which blend contemporary pointillist melody, with world music groove, 60’s/70’s era inspired free jazz energy, and the creative space that comes from years of playing improvised and composed music together. 100% original compositions and instant improvisation.

Chapel Performance Space @ Good Shepherd Center

June 11 / 7:30-9:30pm / sliding scale entrance fee

A world premier concert featuring 6 new compositions by composers Huck Hodge, Farzia Fallah, Anahita Abbasi, Jeff Bowen, Parisa Sabet, and Yigit Kolat. This music will explore contemporary works by artists with a connection to the “new music” influences of Iran.

Ensemble members: Naeim Rahmani (guitar), Abbey Blackwell (bass), Jeff Bowen (guitar), Luke Fitzpatrick (violin), Laure Struber (piano), Neil Welch (saxophones)

Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble, featuring the music of Wayne Horvitz. Come and listen to one of Seattle’s most creative working ensembles. This “mini big band” explores composed music as well as visual conduction (a style of instant, live composition). Instrumentation includes saxes, clarinet, french horn, trombones, trumpets, and rhythm section. Neil holds down the bari sax chair! This is a weekly, recurring performance each Monday at the Royal Room.

Royal Room Seattle

5000 Rainier Ave S, Seattle, WA 98118

https://theroyalroomseattle.com/

Ticket price by donation.

Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble, featuring the music of Wayne Horvitz. Come and listen to one of Seattle’s most creative working ensembles. This “mini big band” explores composed music as well as visual conduction (a style of instant, live composition). Instrumentation includes saxes, clarinet, french horn, trombones, trumpets, and rhythm section. Neil holds down the bari sax chair! This is a weekly, recurring performance each Monday at the Royal Room.

Royal Room Seattle

5000 Rainier Ave S, Seattle, WA 98118

https://theroyalroomseattle.com/

Ticket price by donation.

*Update* Tickets sold out for this event.

The Edmonds Jazz Walk kicks off its inaugural year, featuring over 75 artists in a number of venues. Neil brings a stellar trio featuring Abbey Blackwell on bass and Greg Campbell on drums. This ensemble will explore modern improvisation, original compositions and more fiery free-music stylings that feature Neil’s use of microtonal improvisation, multiphonics, and intervalic melody.

Neil’s trio performs from 6-9pm @ Gallery North

The full schedule can be found here: https://www.edmondsjazzwalk.com/schedule

More info can be found here: https://www.edmondsjazzwalk.com/

Tickets: $30 (includes a wristband to roam from venue to venue and listen to more than 75 different artists). .

Christian Pincock’s Scrambler ensemble is a unique sonic environment. Using the language of “soundpainting,” Christian leads the Scrambler ensemble through fully improvised pieces activated by dozens of hand conducted symbols. These symbols are interpreted by the ensemble and create instant improvisations. Scrambler performs monthly at Vermillion Bar and Gallery. The ensemble features flexible instrumentation, often including flutes, saxophones, trombones, trumpet, clarinet, drum kit, percussion and more. Neil plays bass saxophone in this group!

Learn more about Scrambler at: http://www.christianpincock.net/soundpainting

Vermillion Gallery and Bar on Capitol Hill, Seattle.

Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble, featuring the music of Wayne Horvitz. Come and listen to one of Seattle’s most creative working ensembles. This “mini big band” explores composed music as well as visual conduction (a style of instant, live composition). Instrumentation includes saxes, clarinet, french horn, trombones, trumpets, and rhythm section. Neil holds down the bari sax chair! This is a weekly, recurring performance each Monday at the Royal Room.

Royal Room Seattle

5000 Rainier Ave S, Seattle, WA 98118

https://theroyalroomseattle.com/

Ticket price by donation.

Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble, featuring the music of Wayne Horvitz. Come and listen to one of Seattle’s most creative working ensembles. This “mini big band” explores composed music as well as visual conduction (a style of instant, live composition). Instrumentation includes saxes, clarinet, french horn, trombones, trumpets, and rhythm section. Neil holds down the bari sax chair! This is a weekly, recurring performance each Monday at the Royal Room.

Royal Room Seattle

5000 Rainier Ave S, Seattle, WA 98118

https://theroyalroomseattle.com/

Ticket price by donation.

Live at the Good Shepherd Center (Seattle)

7:30-9:30pm, $10-20 at the door (cash or card)

Proof of vaccination + masking required for all

A live performance celebrating the release of "the ink around it," saxophonist/composer Neil Welch's new concept album. Featuring 2 long-form pieces, including "Puhpohwee" for solo saxophone and "Concepción Picciotto" for an 11 member ensemble, tonight's music will explore the vibrant, lush abundance of the natural world and the human interference within the biodiversity that threatens our one, beautiful earth-home.

Covid safety protocols to ensure a fun and safe experience for all:

1. Vaccination requirement for all performers and concertgoers. Please show proof of Covid-19 vaccination at the door (vaccine card, photocopy or phone picture).

2. Pod seating, with chairs spread out at least 3 feel between pods / individuals.

3. Masks required for concert attendees and performers (excluding performers that cannot wear a mask while playing)

4. Performers safely distanced on stage

ABOUT THE MUSIC:

The release of "the ink around it" celebrates Neil Welch's first personal album since 2014, with 3 unique performances tonight:

7:30pm NAT EVANS to open
Composer Nat Evans will debut an ambient, resonant piece to fill the room, created specifically for tonight's event.

8:00pm NEIL WELCH performs "Puhpowee" for solo, tenor saxophone.

This unique composition utilizes split tone multiphonic reverberations, singing through the horn, pre-notated and flexible material to be improvised on the spot. From Neil: "I tried to take a listener through my sonic interpretation of the fungi bursting forth, spreading their spores, living and dying. The word comes from the Potawatomi Native American language, and translates as “the force which causes mushrooms to push up from the earth overnight.”

8:30 Concepción Picciotto 11 piece ensemble

Marcin Paczkowski - conductor
Danielle Reutter-Harrah, mezzo-soprano voice and soloist
Kate Olson, soprano sax
Jacob Zimmerman - alto sax
Neil Welch - tenor sax / soloist
Peter Daniel - baritone sax
Janna Webbon, violin
Heather Bentley, viola
Ebony Miranda, cello
Abbey Blackwell, bass
Christopher Icasiano, drums and cymbals

From composer and soloist Neil Welch:

"This work is titled, composed and dedicated to the activist Concepción Picciotto, a homeless peace activist that lived on the street in front of the White House from 1981-2016. She held what is thought to be the longest continuous protest in world history, working to help raise awareness of endless US driven wars, with a particular focus on nuclear disarmament. My composition is a 25 minute long work scored for saxophone section, string quartet, rhythm section and mezzo soprano vocal. It is a work exploring myriad territory, from ethereal soundscapes to driving jazz rhythms, percussive undulations and more. It was inspired by her life and written in her memory."

"The album title 'the ink around it' seemed fitting to me--the words express the human drive to create permanent markings in a world where the vast majority of us humans are in constant conflict within the environment we completely depend on."

Neil performs tonight with the outstanding Seattle performance troupe Kind of the Moon. Tonight, Neil debut’s a newly commissioned work, entitled “No house on fire, no.” scored for Flute, Saxophone, Viola, Double Bass and mixed Voice/Piano.

Friday, November 22nd @ Chapel Performance

8pm-11pm, tickets available in advance or at the door

More info: https://kinofthemoon.org/events-calendar

No house on fire, no.

composed by Neil Welch (2019)

for flute, tenor saxophone, viola, double bass, piano and voice

commissioned by Kin of the Moon (2019-2020 season)

About the work:

No house on fire, no. for improvising quintet, explores phonetic text painting, reflections on physical landscapes and the collaborative spirit of a regularly performing ensemble engaged in creative improvisation. The work is segmented into four sections (Introduction, I, II, III) and is intended to progress between sections without pause. All instrumentalists use extended techniques to create undulating sounds of air and wind through various means, such as: fingers sliding on the keyboard with plastic finger picks, flute and saxophone blowing directly into their instruments without engaging pitch, bows sliding on the body of the instrument or swiping against the air itself, feet and hands brushing against the floor, clothing, or instrument. Some passages are dichotomous in their pitch content, blending tempered and non-tempered tuning. No house on fire, no. includes themes using non-pitched breathing through phonetic text painting, with rhythms and phrasing taken from the poem Drawn Together, by Joan Naviyuk Kane.

Performing for the event Ampersand Live! Neil will debut a new work tonight at the Moore Theatre. Entitled Composition for Saxophone and Woodcutter, this new piece is a graphic score set for saxophone with a live woodcutter.

Live at the Moore Theatre Thursday, November 7th.

Doors at 6 // Show 7:30-9:30pm

Tickets HERE

“Composition for Saxophone and Woodcutter is a graphic score that activates the space between nature, ritual and destruction. For the composer, the cutting of firewood is both a patient, calming experience as well as a physical act of mutilation. A tree is sacrificed for warmth, and in the process a living organism perishes. The composition explores the  ritualistic act of woodcutting, with the saxophone amplifying the ancient ritual of a gashing, lacerating and slashing a tree for the benefit of warmth.

Composition for Saxophone and Woodcutter was composed for the event Ampersand Live in Seattle, WA with the theme “fire” provided as a performance action word.”

Bad Luck performs two new sets of music at BIMA tonight. Performing as part of the BIMA series Within Earshot, this Festival show will featuring two distrinctly different sets of music. Set 1, explore new works for drums/saxophone and electronics, and during Set 2 Bad Luck is joined by Seattle dancer and movement artist Lorraine Lau. Don’t miss it!

Tickets and more event info at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art page HERE

Earshot Jazz Festival Performance: The collaborative project Here to Play features saxophonist Neil Welch, bassist Kelsey Mines and drummer Gregg Keplinger, who celebrate the release of their new self-titled album.

Inspired by the fire of 60’s era free jazz, the soulful aesthetic of sun ra and modern improvisation, Here to Play is a powerful trio the blends acoustic and electronics to masterful effect.

Album Release and Performance!

Royal Room Seattle—and Earshot Jazz Festival event

8pm-11pm

Tickets available in advance or at the door

Royal Room website: http://www.theroyalroomseattle.com/calendar.php

Bad Luck duo live at the High Dive Bar. Seattle, WA

Sharing the bill with Animal | Inside + Fix//Sun

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/636557590164552/?notif_t=event_has_tickets_available&notif_id=1565070410495853

Seattle composer John Teske presents a new suite of graphic and generated works for any ensemble as part of his ongoing vectorscores project. Since 2016, John has been writing music with vectorscores, which uses web technologies to generate and render scores. The shape of each piece is composed, with some flexibility in the details, so the works as a whole are crafted but each performance is unique. The new suite explores some recurring thoughts, visions, and dreams from a dark and surreal time, as well as expanding on the potential of the vectorscores project.

Any Ensemble:
Greg Campbell, percussion
Luke Fitzpatrick, violin
Haley Freedlund, trombone
Noel Kennon, viola
John Teske, double bass

Neil Welch, saxophone

For one night only, Bad Luck shares a bill with Lisbon-based experimental trio Alförjs. Listen here for a bit of their work.

8-10pm at the Chapel Performance Space

$5-15 sliding scale fee

Shhhh….Secret Forest Show

The annual collaborative concert between composer John Teske and Neil Welch. Performing graphic scores with quintet, John and Neil will explore sound among the tall trees at Seattle’s Discovery Park.

Directions are available by pictorial images with minimal text. Available very soon and published here.

Saturday, August 31st @ Seattle’s Discovery Park

6:30-7:51 (sunset)

Directions to come

Bad Luck duo shares a bill with Somesurprises and Darto, celebrating Somesurprises new album!

Clock-Out Lounge (Seattle)

9pm-12:00am

Tickets: $10

Event and ticket info here: https://www.facebook.com/events/2191773910892503/

Neil will perform a long set of solo saxophone music inspired by graphic scores, improvised “resonance models,” prepared melodic material, and off-the-cuff-improvisations, all informed by exploring the deep resonances of the horn. Works will include wind, multiphonics, pointillist, elongated melody, and more.

Sacramento, CA @ Gold Lion Arts

8pm / ticket info to come soon

Neil Welch solo saxophone set on Bass, Tenor and Soprano saxophones, exploring improvised resonances in the concrete/20 ft. ceilings back room bar at Vermillion. Following Neil’s performance, he will join Christian Pincock’s Scrambler ensemble for a set of live improvisation sound painting.

Vermillion Gallery and Bar

8:00pm / Neil solo set

9:00pm / Scramble sound painting ensemble