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Tommy Potter
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Tommy Potter was always best-known for his association with Charlie Parker (1947-50), particularly for being a member of Bird's quintet at a time when its other players were Miles Davis, Duke Jordan and Max Roach. Never a major soloist himself on the level of an Oscar Pettiford, Potter (who usually just played four-to-the-bar lines) was really an advanced swing stylist who was flexible (and skilled) enough to keep up with Parker's often rapid tempoes. He actually began on the bass fairly late, originally playing piano and guitar and not switching to bass until he was already 21 in 1940
2018: The Year in Jazz
by Ken Franckling
The year 2018 was a busy one for the jazz world. The genre's version of the #MeToo movement resulted in a new Code of Conduct and other efforts to make the music workplace more equitable. International Jazz Day brought its biggest stage to St. Petersburg, Russia. The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, which ran a high-profile ...
The Early Years of Sonny Stitt in Saginaw, Michigan
by Dustin Mallory
As one of most recorded saxophonists of his generation, Sonny Stitt made more than 100 albums under his own name. He also performed as a sideman with the likes of Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, and Art Blakey. Despite the breadth of recorded work he left behind, Sonny Stitt's upbringing in Saginaw, Michigan is less well-documented. The ...
Detroit Bop Quintet: Two Birds
by Mark Corroto
On December 21st 1947 Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Duke Jordan, Tommy Potter, and Max Roach recorded four Parker compositions for Savoy at United Sound Systems recording studio in Detroit, Michigan. Parker's Quintet was in town for two weeks, performing and backing Sarah Vaughan at the El Sino Club. It appears that Parker hustled to lay down ...
Sonny Rollins + Thelonious Monk
One of jazz's big turning points came on October 25, 1954, when Sonny Rollins altered the direction of the tenor saxophone at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in his parents' Hackensack, N.J., house. The session for Prestige featured Sonny, Thelonious Monk on piano, Tommy Potter on bass and Art Taylor on drums. Up until then, Sonny's sound ...
Ornette Coleman: This is Our Music
by C. Michael Bailey
Ornette ColemanThis is Our MusicAtlantic1961 This is Our Music is the militantly expressed jumping-off point for alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman on the way to the epochal Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation (Atlantic, 1961). Coleman picks up exactly where he left off on Change of the Century and never ...
Ornette Coleman: Something Else!!!!
by C. Michael Bailey
Ornette ColemanSomething Else!!!!Contemporary2011 (1958) Robert Louis Stevenson noted that, “The mark of a good action is that it appears inevitable in retrospect." The middle-to-late 1950s in jazz were populated with several “good actions," all considered inevitable evolutionary reactions to earlier genre, specifically swing and bebop--the latter the ...
Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins: Celebrating Prestige's 60th Anniversary
by Chris May
In fall 2009, the Prestige label is celebrating its 60th Anniversary with a series of compilations and remasters. In October, the Side Steps box set was released, chronicling saxophonist John Coltrane's sideman legacy with the label. In November, there's a compilation of sessions recorded by trumpeter Miles Davis with saxophonist Sonny Rollins, The Classic Prestige Sessions ...
Duke Jordan: In Copenhagen
by Chris Mosey
Irving Stanley “Duke" Jordan, pianist in legendary altoist Charlie Parker's classic quintet, recorded this solo album late in life. It shows he had lost none of the qualities that led Bird to pick him to take part--along with trumpeter Miles Davis, bassist Tommy Potter and drummer Max Roach--in such landmark recordings as “Bird of Paradise," “Dewey ...
Queens: Home of Jazz and Flushing Town Hall
by Greg Thomas
When most people think of jazz in New York City, Manhattan readily comes to mind. The “East Coast" stride piano style was developed in Harlem, where venues such as the Savoy Ballroom, Small's Paradise, the Cotton Club and Minton's Playhouse presented the big bands and small groups of jazz lore. 52nd Street became known for its ...
