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Page 2 of 2 In the past year, Potter’s working quartet has included Kevin Hays (keyboards), Scott Colley (bass), and Bill Stewart (drums), who appear on his new release,  Lift: Live at the Village Vanguard (Sunnyside), as well as last year’s acclaimed  Traveling Mercies (Verve). On his current tour, however, he eschews the bass for a pairing of guitarist Adam Rogers (also on Traveling Mercies) and drummer Nate Smith, and featuring piano and Fender Rhodes ace Craig Taborn. Taborn, 34, is no stranger to the Twin Cities, having grown up in Golden Valley where he jammed with Dave King and Reid Anderson, who went on to become two-thirds of the Bad Plus. His most recent home visit last December included a reunion with King and Anthony Cox for a steaming weekend at the Artists’ Quarter. Steeped in classical and jazz traditions at the University of Michigan, Taborn has a wide range of experience reflecting his eclectic chops and penchant for melodic experimentation across genres, from straight ahead jams with James Carter, Tom Harrell, and Hugh Ragin to the far reaches of avant garde with Tim Berne, and stops somewhere in-between with Roscoe Mitchell, Dave Douglas, and Steve Coleman, among others. Increasingly his efforts have involved electronic experiments, and often he has one hand on the acoustic keys and the other on the Fender Rhodes or computer board. Taborn’s new release, Junk Magic (Thirsty Ear), gives ample testimony to his ability to invent extra-terrestrial soundscapes of texture and motion. In his review for Pitchfork, Chris Dalen notes that “Taborn is a methodically swift pianist who can solo like Scott Joplin's player piano plugged into the wrong voltage.”
Adam Rogers has been touted as one of the finest guitarists in jazz, pop and world music, and has worked with such diverse performers as Steely Dan, Terence Blanchard, Michael and Randy Brecker, Elvis Costello, Norah Jones, and John Zorn. Noted Phil DiPietro in a recent review, ”his skills as a pure player are absolutely mind-boggling, with long lines and phraseology extending the lineage of Martino, Montgomery and Benson, extruding a tone from a Gibson ES-335 so phat and warm it could be coming from a jazz box three times the width.” Rogers recently appeared at the Dakota with Michael Brecker.
Nate Smith’s profile took a major leap last year when he replaced Billy Kilson as the drummer for the Dave Holland Quintet. A graduate of Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead, he met Holland while studying jazz at Virginia Commonwealth University. A composer and songwriter as well as performer, Smith has also ventured into R &B and smooth jazz.
With this group of musicians, we can look forward to unique twists on music from Potter’s Traveling Mercies and his newly released Lift. From the quirky, Monkish, time-snapping “7.5” to the melodic title track to a surprisingly sweet rendering of “Stella By Starlight,” Lift is full of experiments in rhythm and harmony that unfold with magical interplay among the foursome. Most fun is the romping finale, Mingus’ “Boogie Stop Shuffle.” A largely acoustic outing, Lift seems more rooted inside post bop invention than its highly acclaimed predecessor, Traveling Mercies (Verve). Potter’s first recorded adventure in electronica is rich with the sounds of a city merging tradition and urban innovation, from the aptly title “Megapolis” to the darkly harmonic “Snake Oil.” Even a traditional melody such as “Children Go” gets swinging treatment, adding spirit to spiritual.
Take Traveling Mercies , add a lot of Lift, throw in some Junk Magic , mix liberally with dynamite rhythms, and pour onto the Dakota stage for one hot night with the Chris Potter Quartet—June 3, sets at 8 and 10 pm, www.dakotacooks.com.
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Friday, 21 November 2008
