Chris Potter: Got the Keys to the Kingdom

The most potent and impactful tenor saxophonist of his generation, Potter made a big splash with his 2020 lockdown album, There Is a Tide, recorded at home with him playing all the instruments himself. Here Potter joins bassist Scott Colley, pianist Craig Taborn, and drummer Marcus Gilmore before an energized audience at NYC’s hallowed Village Vanguard. On the 14-minute opener, a funk-jazz re-imagining of Mississippi Fred McDowell’s “You Got to Move” (famously covered by the Rolling Stones on 1971’s Sticky Fingers), Potter pulls out his technically brilliant Brecker-ian chops in a Herculean display of tenor virtuosity. The intricate and hypnotic 12/8 vehicle “Nozani Na,” an Amazonian folk tune transcribed by Brazilian classical composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, provides a launching pad for some heated exchanges between tenorist and drummer. The quartet brings things down to an elegant hush on Billy Strayhorn’s darkly beautiful “Blood Count,” then it’s off to the races on an uptempo swinging rendition of Charlie Parker’s “Klactoveedsedstene.” Potter’s unrestrained wailing here, along with Gilmore’s rapid-fire exchanges with the leader, is scintillating. The title track, a gospel blues from 1929, is yet another showcase of Potter’s breathtaking command of his instrument.