Chris Potter Mini-Review

[jocelyn]

Probably most of you don\'t care at all. That\'s fine.

Sooo.... went to see my favorite living saxophone (tenor primarily) player (with the exception of Sonny Rollins) at the Regatta Bar on Tuesday as an early birthday celebration-type deal.

Chris Potter was incredible as always. However, with this sort-of-popular-very-palatable-electric (not him, the rest of his band)-heavy thing he is doing since the release of his new album (Underground) I found myself missing the Chris Potter that I know and love. His reverance for standards was still apparent, but he seemed to be using a lot of Coltrane/Ornette/other giants\' phrasing which I KNOW he doesn\'t need to depend on. (I went to see Chris Potter play Chris Potter!) Plus, his guitar fellow (Adam Rogers) just could not fill the space of Wayne Krantz.  When Chris is playing this type of music, Krantz was the perfect man to play with him. Rogers made a lot of very obvious mistakes, seemed very tentative and kind of halty in his playing... and in short just couldn\'t hack it. Nate Smith (drums) was incredible, if not a little over-the-top, and Taborn made me dizzy a few times. He was amazing.

All in all, I think the show fell a little short of my expectations. However, Potter is still a master of his instrument(s), the songs were beautiful, moving, and impressive for sure... and to be honest, nobody\'s better than he is. I just prefer the swing/standardsesque/hard bop styles that Potter OWNS.

So I\'m not sure what I\'m bitching about. I just think this is not the best forum for his talents.

..... He is better than most everyone......

[FrankZappa]

that\'s not bitching, musicians go through phases. I\'m sure the hard bop fans were pissed at miles when birth of the cool came out. And then again when kind of blue was released. And all three groups were probably pissed throughout the fusion era. Did he do any of his older stuff you like or was it all the coletrane influence stuff? I don\'t know any of his material, so I can\'t really complain over him playing any styles because other than talking to you I know nothing about him. I should get some of his albums.

That sucks that the guitarist couldn\'t hold his own. Was it blatent wrong chord changes and wrong keys or just a lot of flat 9ths and the like used improperly?

[Jim Cobb]

hmmmm expectations, expectations.  mine have been dashed a few times recently when going to see live music.  like paul said, most musicians are constantly evolving, but sometimes it\'s more like regressing.  and sometimes there\'s an up and down, and sometimes artists just go to shit, although i\'m sure that\'s not going to be the case with potter.

oh and boo to mediocre guitarists trying to be more than mediocre.