Free jazz legend Scott Robinson makes a rare Seattle appearance to present a wide-ranging solo performance on a variety of instruments, including the seldom-heard C melody saxophone, featured on his unaccompanied album Solipsisms (2020). He will also engage with local phenom Neil Welch in a duo format.
Neil Welch opens with two works for solo saxophone, each of which will explore his deeply personal language on the instrument. Sonic areas of focus include the weaving of acoustically created multiphonic chord colors, singing through the instrument, air/wind sound, as well as melodies framed by standard and microtonal pitches. He’ll perform his 20-minute work, Puhpohwee, which has not been performed live since 2021. The word Puhpohwee translates from the Potawatomi Native American language as “the force which causes mushrooms to push up through the Earth overnight.” The work aims to sonically visualize the miracle of the mushroom’s emergence. This will be followed by a shorter, largely improvised work for the rarely-heard bass saxophone, pitched a full octave below the tenor.
Multi-instrumentalist/composer Scott Robinson has been a highly active presence on the New York-based creative music scene for more than 40 years, appearing on some 300 albums. Scott performs on both brass and reed instruments, and is equally at home with the traditional and the adventurous. A U.S. Jazz Ambassador and member of the Mingus Band for 30 years, he’s been heard on tenor sax with Buck Clayton, on alto clarinet with Paquito D’Rivera, on trumpet with Lionel Hampton, and on bass sax with the New York City Opera, as well as performances alongside a diverse roster of luminaries such as Anthony Braxton, Ruby Braff, Ella Fitzgerald, Clark Terry, Elton John, Bob Brookmeyer, Frank Wess, Chet Baker, Maria Schneider, and Roscoe Mitchell. As a composer, Scott has created large-scale multimedia works, solo performance pieces, jazz tunes and songs, and chamber pieces. In 2010, Scott formed ScienSonic Laboratories, a label releasing more than a dozen collaborative efforts with Roscoe Mitchell, Marshall Allen, Henry Grimes, Milford Graves, and many others. He is currently at work on his epic one-man improvised symphonic recording, Reach for Tomorrow. After nearly seven years of daily work, the first movement of fully-mixed music for more than 180 instruments is nearly finished. This project will take an estimated 12-15 years to complete.
Saxophonist Neil Welch is a Seattle-based improviser, acoustic and electronic artist, curator, composer, recording artist and educator. His practice is firmly linked to the natural world, welcoming inspiration from the abundant wildernesses of the Pacific Northwest. These influences are sonically reflected by a measured use of space and activated silence, with such specialized techniques as multiphonic-acoustic chord playing, microtonal pitch content, and air/wind-based sound. He is also a deep practitioner in the sculpting of a compelling melody, played on horn voices ranging from soprano to bass saxophone. He is a member of the acclaimed saxophone + electronics / drum duo Bad Luck, and Wayne Horvitz’s Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble. As a solo artist, Neil also particularly welcomes the emotive vulnerability of unamplified acoustic solo saxophone improvisation.
Curated by Haley Freedlund for Nonsequitur‘s NonSeq series.