Chris Potter Big Band

A Q&A WITH CHRIS POTTER:
HIS BIG BAND FASCINATION

Since childhood, saxophonist Chris Potter has been enamored of big bands — their collective power and orchestral possibilities.

He remembers hearing Duke Ellington’s Queen’s Suite for the first time, and being bowled over: “There was just the richness of the colors, you know, from all the members of the band. And the way it was orchestrated was amazing — the compositional clarity, but also just the jazzness of it, the looseness. It was completely new to me. Each piece had its own feeling, and each member of Duke’s big band had his own sound. And when I heard that, I just fell in love with it.”

Ellington and Billy Strayhorn — Duke’s genius collaborator — have been his lodestars, along with Gil Evans. And like all worthy musical guides, they have inspired him to find his own compositional style, which is luminous. Over the years, he has recorded a number of albums for big band and other large ensembles. On each, he arranges beautifully detailed panels of sound that seem to float past the listener, evocatively, almost cinematically, while rhythm sections roil and Potter unleashes his titanic saxophone solos.

He has now composed an evening’s worth of original music for a 19-piece big band — to be premiered March 17 and 18 at SFJAZZ with an all-star lineup that includes vocalist Gretchen Parlato. Part of his weeklong residency in San Francisco, it’s a project that was on Potter’s drawing board for several years. “I was always fighting for time to do things,” he explains. “But during the pandemic, I got to slow down and really focus. Because even thinking about getting some large-ensemble music played — that’s a real challenge. And now with this residency, I can actually do it.”

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