Chris Potter Biography

RU ”in the city of Jazz Award Laureate in the“ tenor-saxophonist of the year ”category according to the International Association of Jazz Juzovaya Jacks for G. RU,” Chris Potter was born in Chicago on January 1, he learned to play the guitar and piano in childhood, but after he heard the game Paul Desksophonist, who wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote the game, who wrote and wrote He played with the quartet pianist Dave Brubek the Take Five melody - realized that it was with the saxophone that his future in music was connected.

The alt-saxophone became his first spiritual instrument, and at 13, he first acted on stage as a tenor-saxophonist. After school, Chris entered the jazz branch of the New York University of the New School, and moved to the Manhattan School of Music. Soon he became a member of the trumpeter ensemble Redny, with whom he worked to the death of a veteran of a jazz pipe in followed by work with a drummer of Mousy Motyan, a smuggler of Dave Holland, a trumpet of a Mingus Big Band, successful solo recordings on Criss Cross, Concord, Verve and other Lablles-and by the middle of the X Potter became one of the most reputable saxophonists of the New York scene.

Few people know that even in Chris Potter suffered from a serious illness of the organs of the inner ear-“Meniera’s disease”, due to which he lost his hearing on one side of his head. However, this did not stop him not only to continue his musical career, but also to become one of the most famous masters in his instrument in the modern American Mayans. In the city of both of these events, his fame far beyond the limits of the New York Jazz community.

Potter took an important step in, moving to the leading European Jazz ECM label: his first album for this company, “Sirens”, declared new creative directions in the development of the artist, also confirmed by the album of the premiere of the new quartet in Russia, the musician gave an interview to the jazz observer. Ru "Grigory Durnovo. Ru »Photo: the editorial archive you come to Moscow with a new quartet.

Could you tell us more about its specifics, about the music that you will play? Before that, we all worked together in different situations, but when it came to a new entry for ECM, I decided to collect this particular composition and wrote all the music for him. Now there is an album, which, unfortunately, will come out only a few days after my arrival in Moscow.

It recorded music, which we mainly will play at the concert. What can you say about your partners in this ensemble? We have known each other for many years. This is a very talented musician, he began primarily as Maynstream Jazzman, but deeply plunged into the study of music for Indian manual boats of the table, into the Horseman rhythmic system, which he now introduces into a jazz game.

Joe Martin plays in the double bass, we also familiarized us with him for many years, participated in a wide variety of concerts - from small restaurants, when we were 22 years old, to large sites. I always liked his game, like his approach to music, and I like him as a person. It is very pleasant to realize that he is with me. In addition, he is a real virtuoso. Ru ”, plays the piano by David Vireles, a very interesting musician, originally from Cuba.

His game, of course, was influenced by his connection with Cuban music, but also a lot from the history of jazz, and the avant -garde too - and this, it seems to me, is something new: as far as I know, there are still no people among Cuban musicians who participated in the creation of more modern, avant -garde music. And with such a musical foundation, he brings something unique to the music.

Will he use any of this in the quartet? It is unlikely that there will be a person on stage. And all this is not so necessary. It is difficult to say whether it will, for example, put sheets of paper inside the piano. But after several joint concerts, it became clear that the most different sound fabric can be removed from an ordinary piano. Is it true that before the appearance of the Underground ensemble you did not have a stable composition?

We recorded two albums, and this composition was my main concert until I switched to Underground, which, incidentally, has not yet ceased to exist. Maybe someday I will collect him again. I have ideas about completely new, other ensembles. At this stage, I focused on an acoustic sound built on a combination of a piano, double bass and drums. Chris Potter If you look at the concert schedule on your page on the Internet, you can see that you play almost every day with different musicians, with different rhythm sections.

For example, I want to come up with a trio, play standards, and then I will call someone these friends of my friends. And if I do something else, then I will call others. If I get ready to do something related to electronics, the avant-garde, I will probably turn to someone else. It is pleasant that there is a network of partners that I managed to create around me in twenty to twenty -five years, and it continues to grow at the expense of the young musicians with whom I work.What was it like to work with the orchestra with whom you recorded the newest album, Imaginary Cits?

By the way, now I am finishing work on the works for this ensemble. Although I do not understand when it can be recorded. But I really liked this work, I delved into the composition of the works. Here is a project that I would like to revive in the near future. You happened to work with a Big Band. What can you say about this experience? When I first ended up in New York, I worked in different big bands, so I knew well how to contact musicians.

But I did not have to write for a Big band before. Such situations - work with Underground Orchestra with string tools for the Imaginary Citys album - G. Does he continue to exist? In, see the last few years the quartet has not performed. Apparently, this moment will come later. Every time we see Josh, we tell each other that we must play a quartet again, but so far we are all too busy in other projects.

I think that this project should be resumed, for example, it would be possible to record an album. It was great to work with colleagues-saxophonists, each of us composed an ensemble for this. Ru ”I would like to ask about working with guitarist Pat Matini in his Unity group. He repeatedly said that this group arose when he had the opportunity to work with you. And what is it like to work with him?

I don’t know when the next time we will be able to play together. It seems that this is another case when it may have to wait several years. But we were lucky to play hundreds of concerts around the world. We played a lot from Pat music on which I grew up. So it was a very special experience - to be with him, to watch how he works. He knows how to create different situations, use the strengths of people, collect groups, choose music that can capture the audience.

He has such talents, in addition to the fact that he simply plays well on the guitar, thanks to them he is at such a high level of skill. I was interested to see it from close range. But just working with him was great pleasure, I really liked him as a person. Preparing for the interview, I found information about the project of the pianist Danilo Perez with your participation called Jazz can tell something about this?

We wanted to play together often, but so far we have not been such an opportunity. Danilo gathered a large ensemble to, let’s say, make the sound brighter and, apparently, to be able to perform on large sites. It is very nice to work with him again, and I hope that this will give an impetus for some further joint work. Have you had any more interesting projects recently? I was there for the first time.

I was lucky to play with Zakir Hussein himself, I was always his fan of the authority, that is, “Master”, Zakir Hussain - one of the brightest masters of the game on Tabla. And there was a couple of concerts last fall in San Francisco with an ensemble in which Indian musicians played, as well as we [smuggled] Dave Holland. It was very interesting because I was very captured by Indian music.

It was especially valuable to see in India classic Indian musicians who are alive. This is a deep, rich musical tradition. And although this music is not at all like jazz, there is something in common, for example, in the use of improvisation. I think this is what attracted [Western] musicians in the past. But Indian musicians can borrow something from us that we don’t really think about, because it is just part of our culture.

Do you still work with Dave Holland? Again, the ensemble of musicians, with whom I have long been familiar and intersected in different situations. It was great to work with them in such a quartet. Over the past few years, I have not played a lot with Dave after hundreds of concerts as part of his quintet for ten or fifteen years. But we still talked recently. And now there is Aziza, and the ensemble with Zakir Hussein.

And sometimes I speak like a guest with his trio, in which Kevin Subanks and the Kalver Oidd are played. First of all, they almost never performed before, so I did not expect at all that I would go on a tour with them. It was somewhere in the year, before that they did nothing for a long time. When I met them and joined the group, I was 21 years old or