>>PREVIEW
CHRIS POTTER
Saturday, February 18
Quincy’s on Seventh
Imagine that you’re one of the hottest saxophonists around and your interests span classical, funk, rap and rock music. Where do you find common ground for your creativity?
For Chris Potter, the common ground is jazz – the thing that connects it all.
"I feel that (my music) is kind of a bridge that I’m trying to make apparent in the way that I’m playing," say Potter, reflecting on his jazz roots.
How is it that he retains a jazz focus through all these interests and influences? For Potter, there is no conflict. He see himself as right in line with jazz tradition and, more importantly, with some of his biggest heroes.
"It’s not a turning your back on (jazz)," says Potter. "It’s a continuation. There’s no reason to avoid other influences in music because that’s kind of how jazz began anyway. I want to incorporate all the sounds that I hear around me and music that I really like, too – funk, some of the best pop music, and a lot of influences from classical music and this and that. I’ve been trying to figure out how to add that to the stew and hopefully come up with some new slant on it."
Potter is no stranger to diverse interests. Growing up in South Carolina, he was exposed to his parents record collection which included everything from Bach and Schoenberg to the Beatles. However, it was the music of Miles Davis and Dave Brubeck that became the most important.
Potter showed a talent for jazz at an early age, mastering first guitar and piano, then alto saxophone, all before he was 15. Interestingly, his interest in different instruments was as deep as his interest in different musical forms. By the time he graduated from high school, he had explored and mastered other instruments as well,, from alto, tenor and soprano saxophone to bass clarinet and flute.
In recent years though, Potter has settled on the tenor saxophone as his musical "voice." It’s through that voice that he’s been able to explore, absorb and learn from the works of some of his greatest jazz heroes – John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Charlie Parker and Lester Young.
"A lot of the music that I’m doing now, especially with the band that’s going to be up there (Calgary) is much more funk related," he explains. "It has a lot of different influences outside the jazz world also, but the esthetic of improvisation and the interaction."
Though his career has ranged from training at the New School and the Manhattan School of Music in New York, Potter has remained openminded."I’m listening to lots of different music, you know," he says. "A lot of classical music, some of the modern bands, I like Radiohead and Bjork, the usual ones that everyone likes. And there’s also a lot of earlier music that I’m going back and listening to – Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell and Dylan and the Beatles. Along with Duke Ellington and Stravinsky and who knows what else. I mean, there are worlds of music." |
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