Search - Chris Potter Underground :: Follow the Red Line - Live at the Village Vanguard

Potter Blows the Doors Off

Ryan Wepler | Waltham, MA | 05/25/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It is tough to add a lot to the superlatives thrown around by the other reviewers, but I am so thoroughly blown away by this album that I am unable to resist registering my enthusiasm. The one thing that bears mention and hasn't been discussed enough is the sheer power of Potter's playing. Potter's solo on "Train," the album's first tune, is truly otherworldly, dynamically building in intensity over the course of more than five minutes (and his solo on "Pop Tune #1" is almost as powerful). I'm not sure whether the title of the tune is an homage to Coltrane (the spelling would suggest that it isn't), but Chris sounds more like Coltrane here than anyone I've ever heard. However, the rest of the band is like nothing Coltrane ever played with. Adam Rogers' guitar fulfills the simultaneous function of a guitarist and a bassist, adding funk to the music and giving it the feel of a jam session or even, at times, a garage band, a feel that is augmented by Nate Smith's heavily rock 'n roll style drumming. The key for these musicians is that the tunes are open enough to allow Potter a great deal of solo space, which he takes advantage of with a combination of intensity and virtuosity that is unparalleled in anything I have heard recently (Taborn and Rogers' solos aren't too shabby either). If you own five jazz albums recorded this decade, this should be one of them."