Jazz Articles about Chris Potter

About Chris Potter

Album Review

Mike Holober & The Gotham Jazz Orchestra: This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters

Read "This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
March 9, 2025

This Rock We're On, acclaimed composer and pianist Mike Holober's 2024 recording as leader of the Gotham Jazz Orchestra, is challenging to summarize in mere words, as it consists of a multi-part suite (on two CDs) which blends jazz, classical and art songs in a thematic environment that uses a series of “imaginary letters" from a half dozen writers, artists and activists. Holober's orchestral response to them is the premise for “a meditation on the beauty of nature and the ...

Album Review

Carl Allen: Tippin'

Read "Tippin'" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
February 19, 2025

Drummer Carl Allen's release Tippin' is an opportune occasion, as it is Allen's first album as a leader in over twenty years. For this storytelling experience, Allen brought together two luminaries of modern jazz: the internationally renowned bassist Christian McBride and the phenomenal horn player Chris Potter. The trio created a cohesive and compelling narrative, resulting in an album that stands out in its ability to balance spontaneity and structure. It is a free-flowing experience that feels both natural and ...

Album Review

Kenny Wheeler Legacy: Some Days Are Better: The Lost Scores

Read "Some Days Are Better: The Lost Scores" reviewed by Francesco Varriale

by Francesco Varriale
January 27, 2025

A distanza di pochi mesi dal decennale della scomparsa di Kenny Wheeler (avvenuta il 18 settembre 2014) e in prossimità di quello che sarebbe stato il suo novantacinquesimo compleanno, la Greenleaf Music pubblica un omaggio al musicista canadese, le cui composizioni vengono proposte secondo arrangiamenti dell'autore che mai erano stati eseguiti in questa forma. Si tratta di un ambito--quello della musica per ensemble allargati--che Wheeler ha più volte curato nella sua vasta produzione artistica, a cominciare da Windmill ...

Album Review

Carl Allen: Tippin'

by Dan Bilawsky
January 23, 2025

Save for a pair of co-led albums with bassist Rodney Whitaker, it's been more than two decades since master drummer Carl Allen released an album under his own name. Rectifying the situation, he delivers this high-appeal, in-the-pocket trio program with bassist Christian McBride and tenor saxophonist Chris Potter. When choosing the personnel for Tippin', McBride was the obvious bass choice from the beginning. There's tremendous shared history here--McBride appears on more of the drummer's recordings than any ...

Album Review

Renee Rosnes: Crossing Paths

Read "Crossing Paths" reviewed by Katchie Cartwright

by Katchie Cartwright
December 7, 2024

In the course of a career that began in the 1980s and continues to flourish, Renee Rosnes has developed an extraordinary sound, both as a composer and as a pianist, one that is readily recognizable whatever the context. With Crossing Paths, she taps into longstanding affinities and affection for Brazilian music, illuminating elements and flavors that distinguish her singular style, animating the band and the material with her arranging magic. She opens the curtain with “Frevo," grabbing the ...

Album Review

Mike Holober & the Gotham City Orchestra: This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters

Read "This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
November 11, 2024

Dopo gli ultimi superlativi album orchestrali (Balancing Act, Palmetto 2015 e Hiding Out, Zoho 2019) la nuova incisione di Mike Holober con la Gotham Jazz Orchestra non dovrebbe stupirci, eppure questo doppio album ci ha nuovamente colpito. L'aggiunta di Chris Potter, John Patitucci, Nir Felder e della cantante brasiliana Jamile Staevie Ayres all'orchestra rende infatti il progetto quanto mai esaltante. Questi nomi completano un organico già nutrito di solisti ragguardevoli come Marvin Stamm e Scott Wendholt alle trombe, ...

Album Review

Mike Holober: This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters

Read "This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
October 1, 2024

We live on a rock. A few billion years of the workings of the complexities of carbon chemistry put us here. The systems and intricacies of every element that has unfolded to maintain us should be respected and preserved. Mike Holober's This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters, featuring Holober and his Gotham Jazz Orchestra, digs into this theme in a sprawling, two-disc big band jazz outing. Like life itself, and the resulting ecosystems, this multi-movement suite--an effort that is the ...