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Sunday, 14 March 2010

Chris Potter Goes "Underground" at the Dakota, February 7th

Written by Andrea Canter, Contributing Editor

Friday, 01 February 2008

The Underground Quartet©Andrea Canter

Winner of the IAJE Young Talent award for saxophone at age 12, a protégé of Marian McPartland by 15, a member of the Red Rodney band while still in his teens, and with a long list of recordings as both leader and sideman while still in his 20s, Chris Potter is one prodigy who has lived up to his early billing. Familiar to jazz audiences through his performances with Dave Holland (Quintet and Big Band) and Dave Douglas Quintet, as well as his memorable gigs with his own bands, Potter and his Underground Quartet (with Twin Cities native Craig Taborn, Adam Rogers and Nate Smith) come to the Dakota for one night on February 7th before starting their European Tour.

Chris Potter©Andrea Canter

Born in Chicago and raised in Columbia, South Carolina, Chris 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 at the New School for Social Research and later 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 and was in high demand as a sideman. 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 decade, highlighted by a 1999 Grammy nomination for his tenor solo “In Vogue” (on Joanne Brackeen’s Pink Elephant Magic), winning Denmark’s 2000 Jazzpar prize as its youngest-ever recipient, winner of the Downbeat Critic’s 2006 and 2007 polls as Rising Star/Tenor Sax, and featured this month on the cover of Down Beat. Well known for his his virtuosity on a variety of reeds and his individuality as a composer, his style has some echoes Sonny Rollins and self-identified influences of Coltrane, Parker, Shorter, and Ornette Coleman.

Craig Taborn©Andrea Canter

Potter’s notes that his goal for the “Underground” band was to draw upon “funk rhythmic language” while keeping the music “as free as the freest jazz conception…a big inspiration for this has been Wayne Shorter’s quartet …basically it’s spontaneous group composition.” Potter, who often plays as much soprano as tenor, sticks with the tenor in this ensemble. Nate Chinen (Jazz Times) described the debut release of Underground as “an aggressive but consonant progressivism, often but not always rock-infused.” The quartet’s second CD, Follow the Red Line (Universal) was released last summer, around the same time that Potter released Song For Anyone with a ten-piece ensemble.

Craig Taborn grew up in the Twin Cities where he jammed with Dave King and Reid Anderson, who went on to become two-thirds of the Bad Plus. 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, Bill Frisell, David Binney, 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 2004 release, Junk Magic (Thirsty Ear), gives ample testimony to his ability to invent extra-terrestrial soundscapes of texture and motion. Craig has since appeared on a long list of acclaimed releases from Drew Gress, Scott Colley, David Binney, David Tornz, Tim Berne and more, and spends much of his touring days in Europe. Down Beat critics named Taborn “Rising Star Electronic Keyboards” for 2007.

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 has toured with Michael Brecker and in a duo with John Patitucci, among others. In addition to touring with Potter and Patitucci this winter, Rogers performs with his quartet featuring Mark Turner, Matt Brewer and Clarence Penn. He’s released three acclaimed recordings for Criss Cross, Art of the Invisible, Apparition, and his latest, Time and the Infinite.

Nate Smith’s profile took a major leap five years ago when he replaced Billy Kilson as the drummer for the Dave Holland Quintet and Big Band. A graduate of Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead, he went on to perform with Carter at the Blue Note and on BET Jazz broadcasts. Smith met Dave Holland while studying jazz at Virginia Commonwealth University, initially performing with the bassist occasionally before joining the Quintet in 2003. A composer and songwriter as well as performer, Smith has also ventured into R &B and smooth jazz, and started his own production company, Water Baby Music.

One night is hardly enough to enjoy all the nuances of the Underground Quartet—be sure you catch Chris Potter and company before they head off to Europe!

The Underground Quartet plays at the Dakota on February 7th, with two sets (7 and 9:30 pm). The Dakota is located at 1010 Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis. For reservatiosn contac www.dakotacooks.com; 612-332-1010.

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