Chris Potter - Eagle's Point

March 7, 2024

Label: Edition Records, 2024

Personnel - Chris Potter: tenor and soprano saxophones, bass clarinet; Brad Mehldau: piano; John Patitucci: bass; Brian Blade: drums.

Possessing advanced musical skills and a kaleidoscopic vision, saxophonist and composer Chris Potter has recently cycled through different small-group formats. For his new outing, Eagle’s Point, he gathered a super quartet whose members, all outstanding bandleaders and valuable sidemen with whom he first collaborated in the ‘90s, take his music to places with joy and an incredible rapport. Lending him key support here is pianist Brad Mehldau, whose melody-centric approach is not devoid of rhythmic nuance, well-versed bassist John Patitucci, and charismatic drummer Brian Blade. Together, they weave tapestries of color, poise, and energy.

Launching the album into motion, “Dream of Home” expresses nimble saxophone lines, excitable bass temperament, and taut, anxiety-laden drumwork. Potter’s authoritative solo sparks with unbounded energy, and his post-bop maturity is also reflected on the impeccably articulated title track, “Eagle’s Point”, a showcase for a serene bass groove in six, a motivic phrase that slides effortlessly across octaves, and a gutsy tenor solo undaunted by outside playing. Mehldau imposes a polychromatic feel in his striking statement, and Blade enjoys intermittent bars of freedom before the theme reinstatement.

Throughout the album, the quartet's unique perspectives cross with disentanglement and ingeniousness. Pieces like “Indigo Ildikó” and “Other Plans”, both mindfully adjusting tension and resolution, offer introspective observations. The former stands as an emotive ballad with vaulting arcs of yearning melody delivered on bass clarinet, while the latter shapes as an elegant Bill Evans-esque waltz.

“Cloud Message” features excellent bass playing and loose contemporary swinging spin, with Mehldau responding assertively to Potter’s accentuations.“Malaga Moon” unfolds with an irresistible 7/4 groove, provoking, surprising and then finally convincing before taking us to the celebratory closer, “Horizon Dance”, whose buoyant groove and liberating style hits the mark.
Potter and his quartet harmonize with a sense of urgency and refined melodic tract, and Eagle’s Point finds them as vital as ever.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Dream of Home ► 04 - Eagle’s Point ► 08 - Horizon Dance

Chris Potter - Got the Keys to the Kingdom: Live at Village Vanguard

February 16, 2023

Label: Edition Records, 2023

Personnel - Chris Potter: tenor saxophone; Craig Taborn: piano; Scott Colley: bass; Marcus Gilmore: drums.

The indispensable jazz saxophonist Chris Potter is gifted enough to create fantastic worlds out of a traditional setting. This is true even when he’s not playing his own tunes. Recorded live at the Village Vanguard, the most desired venue of New York, Got the Keys to the Kingdom displays refreshing non-original material that bolsters the bandleader’s versatility, huge sound, and sophisticated language. Potter is backed by a stupendous rhythm section composed of inventive pianist Craig Taborn, confident bassist Scott Colley, and intrepid drummer Marcus Gilmore.

His genre-crossing aptitude is immediately visible on the opener “You Gotta Move”, an African-American spiritual song popularized by the hill country blues singer/guitarist Mississippi Fred McDowell. This soulful interpretation seems to amalgamate modal jazz, post-bop and soul music with passion, and encapsulates powerful statements from saxophone and piano. Taborn, who starts his improvisation tastefully casual and ends it wildly intervallic, helps to keep an ultimate 12-beat cycle vamp alive for Gilmore’s expansions. The drummer shines even brighter on the title track, another spiritual played with a specific, challenging tempo.

“Nozani Na” is provided with exotic percussive flavors and colorful tapestries. The dancing quality of this Amazonian folk tune, transcribed by Edgar Roquette-Pinto and the great Heitor Villa-Lobos, contemplates serpentine melodies and exuberant solos. By its side, Charlie Parker’s infrequently played “Klactoveedsestene” evokes the good old times as a grooving bop number that swings aplomb, and also shakes during the bar exchanges with the drummer. Before that, Potter delivers an absurdly energetic improv over a sturdy rhythmic grid of bass and drums.

If the aforementioned pieces feel grounded, then the kind and soft-tempered pieces such as Billy Strayhorn’s “Blood Count” and Jobim/Buarque’s “Olha Maria” are hypnotizing in all their magnificent splendor. The former, enigmatically introduced by Taborn, has its dour, dreamy feel magnified by the rubato tempo; the latter, fusing classical innuendo and modal jazz intonation, gives a voice to Colley, who provides qualitative introductory description and wonderful accompaniment.

Potter, who has the right stuff for every occasion, is caught here in full grasp of his capabilities. Every new work from him is an event, and here, his colleagues respond instinctively and expertly to his vibrancy. The results are stellar.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - You Gotta Move ► 03 - Blood Count ► 05 - Olha Maria

Chris Potter Circuits Trio - Sunrise Reprise

May 4, 2021

Label: Edition Records, 2021

Personnel - Chris Potter: tenor and soprano saxophones, flute, clarinet, sampler; James Francies: piano, keyboards; Eric Harland: drums.

A prodigious figure in the contemporary jazz world for many decades, saxophonist/composer Chris Potter constantly makes waves at every release. Sunrise Reprise, the second installment of his acclaimed Circuits Trio - featuring the formidable keyboardist James Francies and the dynamic drummer Eric Harland - consists of a five-track program that, navigating an interesting tonal spectrum, generates a technically perfect circuitry of ultra-modern sounds combined in its electric and acoustic forms.

Recorded in the midst of an imposed New York City lockdown, the album kicks off with “Sunrise and Joshua Trees”, a soaring contemplation delicately crafted with Francies’ adept textures. The tune’s glowing atmosphere has a dreamlike quality occasionally stirred by laser-like synth beams and progressively engulfed by deep bass notes that stimulate Potter’s advanced vocabulary.

The saxophonist’s echo-laced melodies hit us with soulfulness on “Southbound”, where Harland makes an incredible impact as soon as he gets down to business. Francies doesn’t stop to excel, unleashing here a momentous improvisation on top a levitating atmosphere that he created himself.

“Serpentine” is made of recoiling trajectories and sliding friction, emerging as a hip fusion piece built on the grounds of funk. Moreover, it exhibits a hip-hop-ish vibe in the language as well as fiery post-bop chromatics injected by Potter’s effect-laden horn.

Denoting an even-tempered posture, “The Peanut” plays like a ballad, carrying harmonic brilliance and melodic lucidity.

The trio concludes with the 24-plus-minute “Nowhere, Now Here / Sunrise Reprise”, a triangulated open drift which muddles through many complex layers, labyrinthine corridors, and spatially dynamic vamping sections. Following an unadorned introduction with flute and percussion, the group plasticizes through groove-centered avenues guided by busier bass offerings. At that point, a blend of funk energy and precise post-bop dynamics push the soloists to their most eloquent drive and cutting-edge musicality.

Luxuriating in individual freedom and tight collective interplay, Sunrise Reprise may not reach the heights of the Circuit Trio’s eponymous debut, but guarantees plenty of groove and atmospherics to keep you permanently connected.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - Southbound ► 03 - Serpentine ► 05 - Nowhere, Now Here / Sunrise Reprise

Chris Potter - There is a Tide

November 23, 2020

Label: Edition Records, 2020

Personnel - Chris Potter: tenor and soprano saxophones, clarinet, bass clarinet, flutes, piano, keyboards, acoustic and electric guitars, bass guitar, drums, percussion, samples.

This solo album by Chris Potter, made in six weeks while in lockdown, reveals instrumental insight as he plays all the instruments in a new and challenging experience that included writing, recording and producing. It's not as thrilling as when he plays with his groups, but his known strengths are on display, especially the killer saxophone solos, the compositional eclecticism, and the ability to find color and joy in his surroundings.

The opening track, “I Had a Dream”, has all that. The piece, inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, has a glowing Afro-folk feel to it that enhances the urgency of equality in this world.

Potter plays the guitar with a clean, exotic touch on “Like a Memory”, whose main melody is designed with affiliated layers of woodwinds. Tenor saxophone and bass clarinet were chosen for the soloing.

Referencing the Yoruba and Santeria goddess Yemoja, “Mother of Waters” flows at a 3/4 tempo, relying on a fine percussive tract and some clever chromatic shifts to succeed. Breezes of funk are efficiently mixed with African folk music. Still, deeper funk excavations can be found on “Rising Over You”, which boasts some surprising turns in the way. In turn, “Rest Your Head” waltzes gently, displaying a lovely pop melody on top of a harmonic tapestry competently textured with acoustic and electric guitars.

Also harmonically captivating, “Oh So Many Stars” shows a beautiful, contemplative side without committing to a slow pace. It contrasts with “Beneath the Waves”, whose final section, projected with a dancing quality, allows percussion and horn juxtapositions to stand out.

There is a Tide was conceptualized and arranged with imagination, insisting on the search for beauty and hope instead of focusing on the fear and despair. Although far from Potter’s foremost works, it’s hard not to be uplifted by its positive energy.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - I Had a Dream ► 03 - Mother of Waters ► 05 - Oh So Many Stars

Dave Holland / Zakir Hussain / Chris Potter - Good Hope

February 4, 2020

Label: Edition Records, 2019

Personnel - Dave Holland: double bass; Zakir Hussein: tabla; Chris Potter: tenor and soprano saxophones.

The incredible world fusion trio co-led by British bassist Dave Holland, Indian tabla expert and percussionist Zakir Hussain, and American saxophonist Chris Potter is in the active since 2018. When playing in this configuration, these virtuosos are collectively called Crosscurrents Trio and their debut record, Good Hope, is now out on Edition Records. The album comprises eight compositions, three from Holland, three from Potter, and two from Hussain. Each of them are individual, but they perfectly integrate here as a whole, to the point of making us think it could have been composed by only one person.

The combination of Indian classical and Western instrumentation comes immediately to our attention on the opening track, “Zindi”, where Holland and Hussain lay down a sumptuous baseline that serves Potter’s hybrid cooking, naturally infused with post-bop and Eastern seasoning.

The East-West-minded sensitivity is again strongly present in tunes such as “J Bhai”, delivered with an incantatory three time feel and promoting several shifts in tempo, and “Bedouin Trail”, which, while advancing with hypnotic rhythmic layers at a caravan-like pace, features Potter exchanging bars with his associates. This piece focuses on the traditional folk from South Asia.

Far more Westerner and post-bopper in nature, “Island Feeling” is perhaps the jazziest piece on the record, but can’t surpass the cross-cultural emotions of “Lucky Seven” and the title track. The former, penned by Holland, is an emissary of coruscating energy. Hussain initiates the ride with a complex tabla rhythm, with Holland interlocking a half-Indian, half-funk groove. The spirited, curvy high flies of Potter’s soprano come impregnated with rhythmic figures and chromaticism, with the tune ending in circular movement that emphasizes rhythmic accentuation. In turn, Potter’s “Good Hope” is all about the groove and the richness of interplay. The sidestepping improvisatory maneuvers from bass and saxophone contribute to elevate this piece into dizzy heights.

Good Hope offers a ripe set of music made by masters who bring myriad colors and influences into their playing. By navigating through exquisite series of textures and producing energizing chants, the trio calls up a potential range of beautiful, exotic images with these tunes. Listening to them is a phenomenal experience.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - J Bhai ► 03 - Lucky Seven ► 07 - Good Hope

Chris Potter - Circuits

April 17, 2019

Label: Edition Records, 2019

Personnel – Chris Potter: tenor and soprano saxophones, clarinets, flutes, sampler, guitars, keyboards, percussion; James Francies: keyboards; Eric Harland: drums; Linley Marthe: electric bass.

Chris Potter is one of the most influential saxophone players and composers on the scene and his new vibrant outing, Circuits, has enough energy and ample sense of adventure to blow you away. It’s a 21st-century musical journey infused with mordant M-base vibes, offering a cultivated sonic perspective based on an innovative intersection of the post-bop, funk, and electronic worlds.

Five of the nine tracks on the album are bass-less, performed by a core trio composed of Potter, who plays an array of instruments here (including guitar), prodigious keyboardist James Francies, and super drummer Eric Harland, who is better than never in this extra syncopated context. Bassist Linley Marthe joins them in the remaining tunes.

The two-minute horn-driven “Invocation” highlights the bass clarinet amidst the conductive lines that surround it. It serves as an introductory section for “Hold It”, an uplifting piece filled with a gospel-like tenor melody and impeccable accompaniment by the rhythm team. The resourceful trio not only demonstrates how far-reaching their rhythmic attacks can go but also how thoroughly they handle atmospheric passages imbued in electronics. Moreover, you can enjoy Harland’s unrestrained drumming, so rich in color and groove, and Potter’s out-of-this-world language and flawless control of the tenor saxophone.

Splendidly structured and arranged, “The Nerve” boasts spiritual Eastern sounds in its balmy embryonic phase before anchoring in a cool 5/4 groove set with Marthe’s fat bass lines, funk-rock-oriented drumming, and wonderful sweeps and voicings invented by Francies, who later shines on a solo piano passage.

Spirited vibes define both “Exclamation” - an eloquent, fast-paced, funky-oriented exercise with punchy solos from sax and keyboards - and the title track, an odd-metered delight of unmatchable fluidity, hooked in pumping basslines and featuring Francies’ expressionistic zigzags, horns, and Harland’s bursts of assertive drumming.

The dominant explosive dynamics are dropped down a bit on tunes like “Koutoume”, an urbane African dance with first-class percussive accompaniment; “Green Pastures”, which carries post-bop and R&B familiarity; and “Queen of Brooklyn”, a ballad melodically guided by soprano saxophone with backing flute and bass clarinet.

“Pressed for Time” closes out the album, placing relaxing melody over gorgeous, hip-hop-ish broken beats and quick-shifting chordal patterns prior to another explosive, incredibly bouncing affirmation by Potter.

The creative possibilities seem endless, and Circuits, providing unanticipated rhythmic tapestries, hip grooves, and blistering solos, is nothing short of a masterwork.

Favorite Track:
02 - Hold It ► 03 - The Nerve ► 09 - Pressed For Time

Chris Potter - The Dreamer Is The Dream

May 15, 2017

Label/Year: ECM, 2017

Lineup - Chris Potter: tenor and soprano saxophones, bass clarinet; David Virelles: piano; Joe Martin: double bass; Marcus Gilmore: drums.

Saxophonist/composer Chris Potter is a force of nature. Extra sensitive, he displays an extraordinary facility in expressing his individuality, as well as interacting with his bandmates.

Potter’s discography as a leader, which started in 1992, is replete of precious works. In recent times, his greatest showdown was Imaginary Cities (ECM, 2015), a record to cherish and listen unreservedly, but the new The Dreamer Is The Dream, also brings sumptuousness and no less absorbing sonorities.

Potter convenes a first-rate rhythm team that qualifies his writing purposes and musical vision - pianist David Virelles, bassist Joe Martin, and drummer Marcus Gilmore.

The ballad “Heart in Hand” exposes yearning and romantic elegance, starting with a peer-to-peer correspondence between Potter and Virelles. In a subdued way, Martin and Gilmore reinforce the foundation, just to let it go again moments later when the pianist embarks on an unaccompanied solo imbued with imaginary essence. The quartet’s passion is intensified prior to a finale where a shimmering intensity prevails.

“Ilimba” evokes the African continent in the title and evokes it in the rhythm. The percussive chimes of the ilimba, a lamellophone from Tanzania (it’s Potter who plays it), initiate a journey that gains texture and color with Virelles’ left-hand strokes perpetrated in a lower register. Suffused with freedom and glow, this culturally rich tune may easily get into your soul through Potter’s conversational prowess, which flames with off-kilter patterns and thrives with phenomenal melodic perspicacity. The complex swirling phrases by Virelles precede Gilmore’s multi-timbre drum solo before the reinstatement of the main theme.

This creative, forward-driving stretch can be enjoyed again on the expressionist “Yasodhara”, where its sultry post-bop is inflated with Oriental influences. Simultaneously inquisitive, vindicating, and beseeching, this adventure worths every bit of flare and fancy, and everyone is encouraged to spin around.

In order to vary tones and timbres, the title track, restrained in pace but emotionally expansive, embraces a graceful lyricism that comes out of Potter’s bass clarinet. After Martin’s solo, the composer switches to tenor sax to emphasize the finale. On the following track, “Memory and Desire”, he switches again to soprano, delivering eloquent elliptical phrasings that grow in a coruscating crescendo.

Closing the album, Martin and Gilmore boil a steady funk-tinged groove on “Sonic Anomaly”, while Virelles’ splendid comping and rhythmic blaze enliven the stylish trajectories taken by Potter.

Eschewing any sort of boredom, redundancy, or triviality, The Dreamer is the Dream is all about compositional sophistication materialized in a high-end jazz that lives from communication, balance, and authenticity.

Favorite Tracks:
02 – Ilimba ► 04 – Memory and Desire ► 05 – Yasodhara

Aziza - Aziza (Holland / Potter / Loueke / Harland)

December 1, 2016

Dave Holland: bass; Chris Potter: tenor and soprano saxophones; Lionel Loueke: guitar; Eric Harland: drums.

Aziza is the name of a brand new jazz supergroup of snappy influence that includes the bassist Dave Holland, the guitarist Lionel Loueke, the saxophonist Chris Potter, and the drummer Eric Harland.
Their self-entitled debut album is a remarkable artistic pearl that exhales both collective creativity and crisp individual improvisations.

It opens with the groundbreaking funk of “Aziza Dance”, a semi-robotic jubilation that features Potter and Loueke in sharp unisons and affirmative solos on top of the groove laid down by the grandiose rhythm section. The inventive guitarist, and author of this piece, whose quirky approach never lets me down, stands out by improvising with aplomb and originality while using a mesmerizing guitar effect.
The predominance of African and exotic rhythms are observable throughout the record. “Summer 15” is emulsified by Potter’s soprano during the initial melody and then tenor for the final theme; “Finding the Light” is peppered by the saxophonist’s in/out concept and Harland’s intelligent rhythm patterns; in “Sleepless Night”, Loueke shows his enormous influence and versatility, singing and opting for guitar distortion to exchange compelling phrases with Potter.

Even if the title suggests a walking bass, don’t expect to find it in “Walkin’ the Walk”, which thrives with an effervescent groove that obeys to a complex meter. Holland, simultaneously leader and team player, clarifies why he is the most desirable bassist on Earth. Potter and Harland channel their energy to provide unflagging verve.
In “Aquila”, the quartet changes the tempo, passing from a 6/8 to a 4/4 in the final section. Most of its flavor comes from Loueke’s aromatic comping.
An alternative approach was used in the rhythmically acrobatic, “Blue Sufi”, which grabs influence from rock music while occasionally scatters eastern innuendos translated by Potter’s steadfast phrasing.

Using the jazz language as an intermediary, Aziza celebrates different cultures through a consummate liaison. The brilliance of these top musicians translates into a rewarding, nimble album. Indubitably, this is one of the year's best.

Favorite Tracks:
01 – Aziza Dance ► 03 – Walkin’ the Walk ► 08 – Sleepless Night