Rich Pellegrin, with Neil Welch - Before * After

R

Slow & Steady

This is the second album of improvised duets by Rich Pellegrin on piano with Neil Welch playing tenor and soprano saxophones. Their 2024 album “Topography” featured sonic portraits of landscapes, not literal evocations of nature but rather musical responses to the atmosphere of each place. That music was beautifully spacious with extensive use of space and silence – very evocative of waves, wind and birdsong around Whitbey Island, which lies north of Seattle.

The new album has more of a narrative feel with shifting metres suggesting urgency and tension, although there are still floating and lyrical sections. Whilst “Topography” was based around open structures and free improvisation, this album feels more “composed”. Pellegrin explains; “On some tracks, the piano and saxophone responded to each other with no pre-existing material, but for most of them I had a loose sketch of the concept. In some cases I had specific motives jotted down that the piano would play throughout the piece. However, I didn’t tell Neil in advance of the sessions what any of these concepts or motives were, because I wanted to capture total spontaneity in his playing.”

© Gillian Theis

That approach certainly works because Welch is a very intuitive and expressive player. It often feels as if he's following Joe Zawinul's advice to play as if exploring “a newly discovered folk instrument”. His extended techniques give a huge variety of colours to the music; flutter tonguing, stuttering, groaning, whispering, rattling, even ring-modulation effects created by vocalisations within the instrument. These work perfectly alongside the distinctive sound of the Everett Concert Grand piano, located at Whidbey Island's Langley Methodist Church, where the album was recorded. Further colour is added by piano treatments – for example paper laid across some strings on track 4 “Previous” - and creative use of modes; a series of six flats on track 5 “Former”.

Comprising twelve tracks, the album is divided into two parts – Side A (Before) and Side B (After). These two halves are divided by an unspecified event, which occurs at the start of Side B— some sort of defining moment in the life of an individual, community, planet, etc. The listener is free to interpret this loose narrative structure. To my ears, Side A is more settled, sometimes peaceful, sometimes energetic but generally on an even keel. Side B opens with a disruptive, unsettled feel, the sax wheezing, growling and grumbling like a wild animal, framed by dark piano chords. By the final track, the music is very dark with piano played at the extremes of its range and tenor sax lamenting atonally in a canyon like space.

Considering the extent of free improvisation involved, every note and gesture here feels carefully considered, without feeling inhibited – impressive and constantly intriguing. This album makes a great companion to “Topography”. The raw materials are the same, as is the methodology, but the mood and narrative are very different.

The album is available to stream and download, or on CD via BANDCAMP.

© Stephen Godsall
Stephen Godsall is a composer and multi-instrumentalist based in Southern England. His music is released on the Jazz'halo label.