Jonah Parzen-Johnson + Kelsey Mines + Welch/Blackwell/Campbell

Jonah Parzen-Johnson makes music for baritone saxophone & flute that challenges listeners with experimental textures & forms while embracing them with warm approachable melodies. A Chicago native and longtime Brooklyn resident, Jonah has performed solo in more than a dozen countries across four continents. You might find him at jazz festivals in Berlin, Helsinki and Seattle, concert halls in Istanbul and Bruges, rock clubs in Rotterdam, Montreal and Rome, or jazz clubs in New York and Chicago. His solo performances are a deeply intimate experience, as he endeavors to share who he is, how he sees our world, and the temporary moments of community that we can all embrace together.

Bassist Kelsey Mines resides in Seattle, performing and teaching while touring nationally and internationally with groups including ings, NYGASP, and the Hollywood Concert Orchestra. Kelsey currently works for the Yakima Symphony, Symphony Tacoma and the Paramount Orchestra, while freelancing in numerous settings reaching from chamber music to Latin jazz. She released her debut album in 2018 February of entirely original music and currently co-leads the bands EarthToneSkyTone and Here to Play. Kelsey was the recipient of Earshot Jazz’s Emerging Artist Award in 2019 and continually creates inspired work as a solo artist and collaborator.

Saxophonist Neil Welch is a Seattle-based acoustic and electronic artist. Drawing artistic guidance from the abundant wildernesses of the Pacific Northwest, his sonic formations, whether prepared composition or purely improvised, are all firmly linked to the natural world. Neil’s recorded works span contemporary and avant-garde jazz, modern classical, soundpainting, solo acoustic saxophone, electronic sound processing, indie rock, and other current musical forms. Tonight he brings a trio featuring Abbey Blackwell on bass and Greg Campbell on drums/percussion/horn. The ensemble will interpret several of Welch’s most recent original compositions, including works with more fiery free-music stylings, microtonal improvisation, multiphonics, and intervallic melodies that span well beyond the expected range of the saxophone.