(Reprinted from the April 2021 issue of Downbeat magazine)
It’s hard to think of Chris Potter as only a sax phenom after There Is A Tide, his 2020 solo album recorded at home and launched during lockdown. A one-man jazz orchestra, he played 14 instruments on the release, his third for U.K.-based Edition Records. His move to Edition in 2019 makes room for such creative forays, which continue apace with this year’s Sunrise Reprise.
This latest album captures the second studio date for Potter’s trio with pianist James Francies and drummer Eric Harland. As with Circuits, their 2019 recording debut, Sunrise Reprise buzzes with modernistic vitality and oscillating electronics—at a slight remove from Potter’s earlier acoustic work.
Still, the focal point of the album’s five compositions remains Potter’s perfectly sculpted sax lines, in this case, stacked in unison or two-part harmony. But Francies and Harland, in providing the ballast for such vertical expansion, render Potter’s alacritous exploration all the more exciting.
One can hear the trio’s discerning equilibrium on “Southbound,” in Francies’ responsive comping and electrifying solos, or on “Serpentine,” in Harland’s flawless punctuation on the horn’s brisk melodic statements. The album’s penultimate track, “The Peanut,” is a little different from the album’s other tunes, though. A fine-spun ballad, this piano-sax duet glides on legato phrasing and traditional jazz harmonies, with only one whorl of electronica in the intro to suggest that something more experimental is afoot.
Intriguingly, the last track, “Nowhere, Now Here/Sunrise Reprise,” and the first, “Sunrise and Joshua Trees,” share a buried hook—a few simple, arresting intervals. Potter’s musical notions in and around this melodic reference impress: The closing tune alone lasts for 24 minutes. Potter fills those minutes with meditative passages, scratchy grooves, ethereal effects, and feverish soloing—a release of pent-up demand, perhaps, for brighter days and happier outlooks.
Sunrise Reprise: Sunrise and Joshua Trees; Southbound; Serpentine; The Peanut; Nowhere, Now Here/Sunrise Reprise. (54:42)
Personnel: Chris Potter, tenor and soprano saxophones, clarinets, flutes, sampler/keyboard;
James Francies, piano, keyboards; Eric Harland, drums.