NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND CHRIS POTTER'S MANY INFLUENCES - AND INSTRUMENTS - SHINE WITH GROOVE-HEAVY QUARTET.Byline: Fred Shuster Music Writer Virtuoso saxophonist Chris Potter Chris Potter may refer to:
n. A member of a jazz band who is not the leader or a featured soloist. to some of the biggest names in jazz, with credits ranging from Dave Holland This article is about Dave Holland, the jazz bassist and composer. For other people with this name, see Dave Holland (disambiguation). Dave Holland to Jim Hall Jim Hall is the name of:
But it's as leader that the increasingly adventurous post-bop soloist and composer truly shines. On his latest endeavor, Potter stretches boundaries in a classy outfit that dispenses with the traditional bass role yet improbably channels the rhythms of funk. The group, called the Underground quartet after Potter's recent album of the same title, puts forth some of the more unusual grooves on today's modern jazz scene. ``I'm convinced there's an audience that wants to hear things it hasn't heard before,'' Potter, 35, said from his home in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of . ``I've never understood why so many people look at music as some sort of comfort food where the more familiar it is, the better it is. Jazz has always been about going new places and bringing the listener along. But I also believe it shouldn't require a great amount of effort for people to dig what's happening.'' The Web's respected All About Jazz site said Potter's new music combines ``emotionally wide-reaching compositions with often knotty knot·ty adj. knot·ti·er, knot·ti·est 1. Tied or snarled in knots. 2. Covered with knots or knobs; gnarled. 3. Difficult to understand or solve. See Synonyms at complex. , yet always accessible grooves ... an album that, more than announcing his potential, delivers it from start to finish with a clear voice.'' Raised in Columbia, S.C., Potter moved to New York at the age of 18 to study at the Manhattan School of Music Founded in 1917, the school is located on Claremont Avenue in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of New York City, adjacent to the campus of Columbia University, where it has been since 1969. Many of the students live in the school's residence hall, Andersen Hall. . As a student, he landed a gig with veteran bebop bebop or bop Jazz characterized by harmonic complexity, convoluted melodic lines, and frequent shifting of rhythmic accent. In the mid-1940s, a group of musicians, including Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and Charlie Parker, rejected the conventions of trumpeter Red Rodney, the first of many high-profile gigs for the alto/tenor/soprano saxophonist, who also plays bass clarinet and flute. Tours and record dates with Ray Brown, James Moody, Steve Swallow, Larry Carlton, Paul Motian, Hall, and Steely Dan's Walter Becker and Donald Fagen followed. For the past eight years, he's played an integral part in bassist Holland's award-winning quintet and big band. ``You have to be open to all kinds of music, not just jazz,'' said Potter. ``I get inspiration from listening to every kind of music, from Bartok and Stravinsky to the Beatles and Brazilian and African. It's a really amazing time now because the entire universe is available to us. You can buy CDs recorded in tiny villages or in major recordings studios. There's just so much music out there to find out about. My iPod is full of stuff from around the world and two blocks away.'' Potter's Underground quartet - featuring top session cat Adam Rogers (guitar), Craig Taborn (keyboards) and Nate Smith (drums) - appears at the Jazz Bakery in Culver City tonight through Sunday. For local jazz aficionados, it's an event. The complex, funky and warmly accessible music of ``Underground'' (Sunnyside), Potter's 11th effort as leader, emerged from experimentation at the unpretentious, free-wheeling 55 Bar in New York's Greenwich Village, a hotbed hotbed, low, glass-covered frame structure for starting tender plants. It differs from a cold frame only in that the soil is heated—either artificially as by underground electric wiring or steampipes, or naturally with partially fermented stable manure, which for some of New York's most creative players. Ultimately, the saxist hit upon the right mix of Wayne Krantz (guitar), Taborn (using the perennially under-appreciated Fender Rhodes electric piano) and Smith (Potter's bandmate in the Holland ensembles). Since Krantz Krantz is the name of two persons:
``I worked with a lot of different people until I ended up feeling like I'd found the perfect combination,'' Potter said. Well-schooled in the masters - Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, Eddie Harris, Wayne Shorter, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, etc. - Potter is an unabashedly un·a·bashed adj. 1. Not disconcerted or embarrassed; poised. 2. Not concealed or disguised; obvious: unabashed disgust. rhythmic player who gathers influences from contemporary r&b, rock, even country music. ``I don't believe this music has to be a museum piece,'' he said. ``If there's a way in that lets people get it, why not use it?'' Fred Shuster, (818) 713-3676 fred.shuster(at)dailynews.com CHRIS POTTER'S UNDERGROUND QUARTET Where: Jazz Bakery, 3233 Helms Ave., Culver City. When: 8 and 9:30 tonight through Sunday. Tickets: $25. (310) 271-9039. jazzbakery.com. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: no caption (Chris Potter) |
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