Born in Chicago and raised in Columbia, South Carolina, Potter was introduced to music early, first studying piano and then switching to the saxophone after hearing Paul Desmond’s "Take Five." He studied jazz and played in the University of South Carolina band as a middle school and high school student. Named by Down Beat Magazine as the top high school jazz instrumentalist at 18, he then moved to New York, first studying with Kenny Werner at the New School for Social Research and later enrolling at the Manhattan School of Music. In 1991 he was a finalist in the Thelonious Monk Tenor Sax competition, along with Eric Alexander and winner Joshua Redman. Over the next few years Potter recorded his first sessions as a leader, with Criss Cross and particularly with Concord; he was in high demand as a sideman and would appear on as many as 20 recordings a year, including a live date at Maybeck with mentor Kenny Werner. Throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, he toured and recorded with Jim Hall, Ray Brown, James Moody, Steve Swallow, Larry Carlton, Paul Motian and Steely Dan, among many others.

Potter’s career as been equally meteoric in the past five years, highlighted by a 1999 Grammy nomination for his tenor solo “In Vogue” (on Joanne Brackeen’s Pink Elephant Magic), and winning Denmark’s 2000 Jazzpar prize as its youngest-ever recipient. Today Potter is probably best known for his outstanding collaborations with Dave Holland and Dave Douglas, but his own work with this quartet and other projects speaks volumes about his virtuosity on a variety of reeds and his individuality as a composer. His style is his own, with some echoes of Sonny Rollins and self-identified influences of Coltrane, Parker, Shorter, and Ornette Coleman.