Available as a download only, Bad Luck’s Bloodroot is a fine example of the extremely powerful and virtuosic, cutting-edge music coming out of Seattle these days. Sure, drummer Chris Icasiano and saxophonist Neil Welch make an unholy racket for much of the track’s generous twenty-plus minutes duration, yet a determined sense of focus is quite palpable: this is freely improvised music with a strong sense of direction.

Welch possesses a raw, cavernous, unforgiving tenor sound that brings both Peter Brötzmann and David S. Ware to mind. He uses various electronic effects quite judiciously, sounding at various times like a subway train coming to an unexpected halt, amplified computer innards, or an angelic choir announcing the beginning of the apocalypse. His bass clarinet can also be heard lurking subliminally beneath the layers of effects and thundering drums.

Icasiano is similarly resourceful, using a variety of mallets, sticks, and other implements to create subtly shifting backdrops—sometimes grooving, sometimes stumbling, sometimes hanging suspended above Welch’s agitated tenor.

Bloodroot is intense stuff indeed, but somehow it’s also not difficult listening. A fast twenty minutes worth of raw spontaneity.

Sympathy for the Devil?

-Lucid Culture (source)

Abdel Hamed Mowhoush fell for a lie, and it cost him his life: being a major general in the Iraqi army under Saddam Hussein in 2003 didn’t help. According to Human Rights First, Mowhoush’s four sons were taken prisoner by US forces. Assured that he and his children would be released if he turned himself in, Mowhoush did so. But rather than being let go, he was brutally tortured and subsequently murdered by an interrogator, Lewis Welshofer, who was courtmartialed and along with a few of his fellow soldiers, given a slap on the wrist for his role in the events. This killing raises all sorts of questions, from why the murder was committed – or sanctioned – in the first place, to whether or not such acts are ever justifiable. Seattle saxophonist Neil Welch addresses the incident with a chillingly and rather brilliantly orchestrated tone poem of sorts, Sleeper, out now on Seattle’s Table and Chairs Music.

Welch’s point of view here is clear. “May the darkest, most difficult moments of our lives be met with love instead of hate, compassion instead of rage,” reads the epigram on the album sleeve. As you would expect, this is a somber and intense piece of music, played sensitively but acerbically by Welch along with Ivan Arteaga on alto and soprano saxes, Jesse Canterbury on bass clarinet, Vincent LaBelle on trombone and David Balatero and Natalie Hall on cellos. It begins ambient and elegaic in the manner of a salute delivered by slowly shifting sheets of sound from which harmonies slowly begin to develop, as if in a flashback. Martial allusions bustle and reach anguished peaks, then recede: much of this has echoes of Stravinsky. Fullscale horror is kept under restraint here, to crushingly powerful effect. A menacing harangue, a possible good cop/bad cop interlude and furtively official-sounding scurrying eventually cede to atmospheric horror bleeding with microtones. When a more cohesive martial theme appears, it quickly takes on a cold blitheness. Figures dart around like extras shuffling around the set of an early black-and-white film. Ending on much the same note as it began, it makes a potent follow-up to Welch’s Bad Luck collaboration with drummer Chris Icasiano. That one rated in the top 25 jazz albums of the year here last year: this could easily do as well.

Bad Luck Bloodroot EP and West Coast tour!

Bad Luck is touring the west coast from May 6th-13th and we’re darned excited about it!   A few months ago we recorded our first EP, a little track we like to call Bloodroot.  This 21 minute track will be available for download exclusively from Table and Chairs Music, but during our tour we’ve cooked up a special package.  We’ll be selling single download cards + limited edition screenprinted posters for $7.  And, for the first time we’ll also have Bad Luck t-shirts.  Available for $15!  

Our tour will hit the following cities: Seattle, Portland, Eugene, Sacramento, Berkeley, San Francisco, Isla Vista and Los Angeles.  See below for show dates!

Friday, May 4th - Seattle @ IMPfest 2012 - Hughes Penthouse Theater (UW campus)
***BLOODROOT EP RELEASE SHOW***
7:00pm
Suggested donation only
http://improvisedmusicproject.com/

Sunday, May 6th – Eugene @ New Zone Art Collective
164 West Broadway
Eugene, OR
7:00pm, $3-5 suggested donation
http://newzone.org/about.html

Tuesday, May 8th – Isla Vista @ Biko Garage
6612 Sueno Rd., Isla Vista
7:30pm
$5 Suggested Donation
http://www.myspace.com/biko_garage

Wednesday, May 9th – Los Angeles @ Human Resources
410 Cottage Home St in Chinatown, 90012
8:30pm, doors at 8:00
$5 cover
with: Slumgum and LA Fog
http://humanresourcesla.com/

Thursday, May 10th – San Francisco @ The Luggage Store Gallery
1007 Market St.
@ 6th Street
San Francisco, California 94103
Admission $6-10 sliding scale
8:00pm
http://www.bayimproviser.com/venuedetail.asp?venue_id=7

Friday, May 11th – Sacramento @ In the Flow Festival
Luna’s Café
1414 16th St
Sacramento, CA 95816
7:00pm
www.intheflowsacramento.com

Saturday, May 12th – Berkeley @ The Jazzschool
2087 Addison St
Berkeley, CA, 94704, United States
Free Improvisation Workshop
$30 advance purchase/$45 day of the workshop
3:15 PM
http://jazzschool.com/event/free-improvisation-workshop/

Sunday, May 13th – Portland @ The Blue Monk
3341 Southeast Belmont Street
Portland, OR 97214
7:30-10:30
$5-7 suggested donation
http://www.thebluemonk.com/