Chris Potter is one of my biggest influences.
I first discovered him on a Red Rodney album, circa 1994. My friend Juan found the disc in the sale bin at a Coconuts Records in Florida.
In the 50-minute master class below he shares at least a dozen gems of wisdom on playing the saxophone—and jazz. If you can’t make time to watch the whole thing, there are excerpt clips below.
It begins and ends with his trademark a cappella performances. He opens with Charlie Parker’s “Confirmation” and closes with “Body & Soul”.
Side note: In the late nineties I had a lesson with Chris at his apartment NYC. We played “Just Friends” unaccompanied and I realized I did not know tunes. The experience set me on a better path to learning tunes that strengthened my playing more than anything else.
A few noteables from the full video:
- @16mins…
Q: Are you thinking about what you’re going to play or are you just reacting?
A: “If I’m thinking about how I’m going to approach things, about what I’m going to do, then something’s uncomfortable. Something’s not quite right.” - @21 mins…why he didn’t take piano lessons.
- @27min…copying players who’ve come before you is “a necessary part of the learning process”.
- @29min…Do you feel satisfied with your playing? Do you hate listening back to your solos?
- @30-35mins…great stuff on learning from master players and having a conception.
- @39mins…on being happy.
Excerpts
1. Chris Potter on Charlie Parker and jazz vocabulary
“You have to over-learn…and then it’s having the taste to not use it all.”
Amen. Amen. Amen. Burn that phrase into your memory. Recall it before every solo you’re about to take.
[There’s so much to learn, but…] “When you’re actually playing, if you’re thinking about that—at all—then you’re taking away from the expressive aspect which is the whole thing.”
2. Chris Potter on talent, practice, meditation, and personal development
Work + focus.
- On needing to practice: “[Practicing is] my way of meditating…to get my energy right so that I can give that energy out to people.”
- On practicing after you’re already good: “It doesn’t matter how high a level you’ve reached. If you stop going further, it kind of goes back a little.
- “Your development as a musician goes along with your development as a person.”
3. Chris Potter on discovering triads and why he didn’t take piano lessons
Deconstructive learning. You will always learn more when you teach yourself something but disassembling it and putting it back together in a way that makes sense to you.
4. Chris Potter on Michael Brecker
5. Chris Potter on having a conception, and imitating other musicians
Or, the joy of discovering how other’s have approached music.
6. Chris Potter on how playing with Pat Metheny is like being in a play
What happens when you have to perform the same music night after night?
7. The most important thing you can learn from Chris Potter
“Sometimes practicing the piano for awhile means that when I pick up the horn, all of a sudden I can do a bunch of stuff, and hear exactly what it is I’m looking for, without even practicing saxophone.”
There are a lot of Chris Potter recordings out there. A few of my all-time favorites are:
Concentric Circles
Pure
Sundiata
Chris Potter & Kenny Werner
Gratitude
Then and Now (age 21)
Red Alert (age 19)
Awesome post. THANK you for putting this up and breaking it down.
Thanks for taking time to enjoy it!
Insightful. Just great.