Chris Potter

Post-bop saxophonist Chris Potter quietly became one of the more sophisticated and respected stylists of the '90s and early 2000s, both as a leader and as a sideman in several prominent groups. Born in Chicago on New Year's Day 1971, Potter grew up mostly in Columbia, SC, and started playing piano as a child. He took up the alto saxophone at age ten, initially inspired by Paul Desmond and Johnny Hodges, and went on to learn tenor and soprano sax, bass clarinet, and flute as well; by 13, he was performing professionally. At age 18, he moved to New York to attend the Manhattan School of Music, and quickly joined veteran bop trumpeter Red Rodney's quintet, with which he performed until Rodney's death in 1994. Meanwhile, he started playing on the side with Jazz Mentality and John Hart in 1992, and at the end of the year cut his first album as a leader, Presenting Chris Potter, for the Dutch Criss Cross label. In early 1993, he guested on Marian Mcpartland's In My Life on Concord Jazz, which led to a deal of his own with the label; despite their generally mainstream output, they promised the more adventurous Potter full creative control.

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