Chris Potter is a saxophonist, clarinetist, and American jazz composer born on January 1, 1971 in Chicago, Illinois.
Biography :
Chris Potter spent most of his childhood in Columbia, South Carolina, where his mother taught psychology at the University of South Carolina. He shows a very early interest in music, and becomes a child prodigy, mastering the guitar, piano, drums, to turn definitively to the saxophone.
Chris Potter plays as a professional musician at age 13, and quickly gains local notoriety. He studied at the New School and then at the Manhattan School of Music in New York. He begins to make himself known in clubs alongside the trumpeter Red Rodney.
Musical path:
Chris Potter has made a lot of albums as a leader and even more as a sideman, playing with musicians like Kenny Werner, Red Rodney, Marian McPartland, the Mingus Big Band, Paul Motian, Ray Brown, Jim Hall, James Moody, Dave Douglas, Joe Lovano, Mike Mainieri, Steve Swallow, Steely Dan, Dave Holland, Joanne Brackeen and Herbie Hancock. The musicians of his bands include people like Wayne Krantz, Kevin Hays, Craig Taborn, Bill Stewart, Brian Blade and Scott Colley. His 1998 album Vertigo was rated as one of the top ten jazz albums of the year 1999 by Jazziz magazine and the New York Times. He has been nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Solo, for his work with Joanne Brackeen on his album Pink Elephant Magic. Although he has toured extensively with all of Dave Holland's ensembles, Chris Potter has not stopped the world with his own bands since the release of the album Gratitude in 2001.He is the only musician to have won twice the Jazzpar Price (in), the prestigious competition for writing and recording improvised music Scandinavian, a once as a sideman with Jim Hall in 1998, then two years later under his name.
He played a lot of viola at the beginning of his discography but now focuses on tenor and soprano.
Instruments:
Chris Potter has been playing on a Selmer Mark VI (en) patented tenor saxophone since 1962 (90xxx) 4 since 2009, after having used for a long time a silver Selmer Balanced Action "32855" from 1945 which belonged to Michael Brecker (and which is in fact a last Balanced Action). It plays with a 1960s 1960s modified 1960s Otto Link Vintage Florida Beak and Rico Jazz Select 2 Hard reeds. Sometimes he also uses François Louis reeds.
He has other instruments ,. We saw him with Conn a few years ago, and he played on a Mark VI 86xxx on his first albums. He plays on an old Selmer bass clarinet from the 1920s (accompanied by a Bundy beak he had with the instrument), and has a Selmer Mark VI alto saxophone with a Selmer Soloist Vintage beak. He plays on a varnished Selmer V-III soprano saxophone, with Selmer Soloist E Vintage beak, and reeds.