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Cat. No.: 984 2116 |
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For years now, there has been no more proficient working band in jazz than the Dave Holland Quintet. Like such precursors as the Jazztet and the Jazz Messengers, it balances songcraft and improvisation with consummate ease. And the seasoned frontline of saxophonist Chris Potter, trombonist Robin Eubanks and vibraphonist Steve Nelson goes beyond the usual tag-team solos in engaging in complex time schemes and coloristic shifts, extending themes and partaking of overlapping lines. Critical Mass boasts some of the band's catchiest tunes while showcasing its fondness for mussing up their clean foundations with free-spirited exchanges before restoring civility. The material ranges from bassist Holland's Middle Eastern-tinged "Secret Garden" to drummer Nate Smith's hip-hoppy "The Leak." Powerfully contained on tenor, Potter sounds like he's been listening to the great, departed Steve Lacy on soprano while Nelson plays up his percussive skills on marimba. If the album doesn't have the excitement of past efforts, that's partly because Smith, as strong as he is, doesn't have the sudden explosiveness of his precedessor, Billy Kilson. Perhaps, too, the band has settled a bit into familiar patterns.
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Cat. No.: 530 1907 |
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CHRIS POTTER | Potter Tentet : Song for Anyone |
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Cat. No.: 530 1908 |
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CHRIS POTTER | Live At The Village Vanguard
Two splendid releases, which showcase the ubiquitous musicianship of Chris Potter, and herald what is to come from him in the future. Ever since he burst on the scene in the 90s, the award winning, Chicago-born, tenor-soprano saxophonist/bass clarinetist Chris Potter has blazed an impressive musical trail with his stellar sideman gigs with everybody from Red Rodney, Dave Holland, and Paul Motian, to Steely Dan, and by his critically-acclaimed fourteen recordings as a leader. Now he simultaneously releases two new albums that showcase the ever-evolving genius of this saxophone colossus in the making. Song For Anyone features Potter fronting a ten-piece ensemble with woodwinds and strings, with his longtime partner, bassist Scott Colley, drummer Adam Cruz, guitarist Steve Cardenas, Greg Tardy on clarinet, cellist David Eggar, violinist Mark Feldman, Michael Rabinowitz on bassoon, flutist Erica Von Kleist, and Lois Martin on viola. The CD – which takes its name from a poem by E.E. Cummings – is an elegant and intricate extension of the saxophone-orchestral tradition rooted in classic recordings like Charlie Parker’s Bird with Strings, Stan Getz’s Focus, and Joe Lovano’s Rush Hour with Gunther Schuller. On Song For Anyone Potter’s rich, rugged and romantic sax tone effortlessly illuminates and amplifies the equally sensitive orchestral arrangements that, unlike many other efforts, are the perfect foil to the leader’s improvisations. “The Absence” is a probing piece pulsed with a zesty feel, followed by the dancing selection “Against the Wind.” “Closer to the Sun” is a mallet-drummed Coltrane “Crescent”-coded number, contrasted by the folk rock backbeat of “Family Tree.” The equally bouncy “Chief Seattle” is a worthy successor to Wayne Shorter’s Blue Note-era classic “Chief Crazy Horse.” “Cupid and Psyche” rings with the type of martial drumming that Miles Davis referred to as the “Rat Patrol” sound, making it the perfect segue into the rhythmically adventurous percussion explorations of the title track and “The Arc of a Day.” The Latinesque and blues-tinged “Estrellas de Sur” and “All By All,” conclude this dynamic disc that proves that in Potter’s skilled hands, jazz is an extension of the European classical tradition. Another part of the jazz tradition is the live recording, and Manhattan’s fabled Village Vanguard is the brook of fire through which every improviser must pass. That said, Follow the Red Line – Live at the Village Vanguard shows that Potter has come through the burning sands of that venue’s bandstand in flying colours. Backed by an intriguing, bass-less quartet composed of Detroit’s Craig Taborn on Fender Rhodes electric piano, drummer Nick Smith, and guitarist Adam Rogers, Potter prances and dances on six extended-length excursions. “Train” leads off the set with some serious swing, followed by the sub-continental syncopations of “Arjuna,” named for the prince in the Indian literary classic, the Mahabharata. “Pop Tune #1” is laced with some up-south downbeats in three, graced by Smith’s tangy solo, while “Viva Las Vilnius” dances with Carib-cadences, contrasted by the hymnal hues of “Zea.” The disc closes on the powerful, Afrobeat anthemed “Togo” a propulsive ode to the delightful West African nation that Duke Ellington saluted in one of his last major suites. Here, Potter’s in-the-pocket bass clarinet solo and accompaniment is an Africanized summation of that instrument’s major voices – from Eric Dolphy to Bennie Maupin, equaled only by Taborn’s impossible keyboard solo. |
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