A slew of terrific sax players have plied their trade on livestreams and recordings in this last strangest year ever. I was curious then, how Chris Potter, widely touted as top titan of the tenor - post Michael Brecker - would sound to my ears after hearing some quite unbelievable playing from both sides of the Atlantic. From Stateside the likes of Wendell, Lovano and Redman as well as our own Trish Clowes, Alec Harper, Vasilis Xenopoulos, Harry Keeble and others. On the evidence of this Edition Records follow up to his 2019 Circuits trio album, recorded in a short window of freedom in late 2020, I have to say he has a strong claim to top spot!
Potter is
renowned for superlative technique and agile invention in warp speed
improvisations, both are on show here in a tour de force of five substantial
pieces which don’t hold back in dazzle, drive and duration. But while this is
clearly Potter’s album, his compositions, structured mostly around his own
lead, it is far from a one man show and the trio takes him in a more
contemporary and electronic direction than much of his more classical tenor canon.
Harland on drums is a supreme foil for
Potter with huge power, versatility and subtlety when called on. Francies is
the youngster of the band by two decades, with R ‘n’ B and hip hop in his
armoury, and brings swirling bass lines and proggy synths as well as molten lyricism
of his own to match Potter.
Southbound
opens with
an airy and optimistic call laid down: the motif is then worked back and forth,
before moving up a gear to stretch out into a weaving and swooping workout
alternating between keys and sax driven relentlessly by Harland’s precise
wizardry.
Serpentine is indeed
a sinuous and funky beast, with another catchy motif stretched and swapped
across the beat, and up and down through bewildering and seemingly effortless
harmonic trails, culminating in a high energy drums and keyboard workout.
The Peanut
comes down
from the frenzy with a delightfully spacious and expressive sax and piano duet
which builds to an anguished hiatus before resolution revealing Potter’s more
spiritual face.
The final
and longest number at 24 minutes, Nowhere Now Here/Sunrise Reprise, throws
in some flute for variety before embarking on a quite remarkable journey
through multiple moods and styles, featuring a drum solo of staggering finesse
and musicality. Surely on anyone’s list for track of the year, with power and
emotion tempered by precision and subtlety.
Altogether
a breathtaking outpouring of remarkable music: in turns muscular and mysterious
– a timely reminder that there is great art still in that contradictory phenomenon
which is the USA.
Chris K
Try/buy CD,Vinyl LP, Digital here. Label: Edition
Records. Recorded:
19th September 2020 Release date: 14 May 2021
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