Chris Potter Quartet
Village Vanguard178 7th Avenue South, New York 10014
Chris Potter Quartet is billed at the Village Vanguard on December 30. The booking gives no personnel for this date, so the musicians joining Potter are not identified. It is a quartet performance in the Vanguard’s triangular downstairs room, with its stage set against the red curtain and tables fanning out toward it. The club asks for quiet before the concert, keeping the focus on the players and the music rather than conversation.
Potter is known mostly as a tenor saxophonist, though NPR has noted that he has also brought alto flute, bass clarinet and soprano saxophone to a previous Vanguard appearance. His earlier live Vanguard album, Got the Keys to the Kingdom, documented a different quartet with Craig Taborn, Scott Colley and Marcus Gilmore, so it does not establish this night’s lineup. Couleurs Jazz called that recording a “totally acoustic and live concert” and described Potter as “one of the most exciting saxophonists on the American and international scene.” AllMusic has called him “a harmonic whiz kid.” Writing on the Vanguard recording, Jazz Weekly heard Potter in a “big and beefy Rollins-esque mood,” while Glide called the group “elite” and said its playing reached “spiritual peaks.”
A narrow basement staircase leads to a triangular room with a red curtain and a stage at the point, where musicians play for a small audience of 123. Tables open like spokes from the stage, and the walls hold portraits of jazz legends. The acoustics are excellent, and the only sound before the music begins is the hum of the room. No food is served, only drinks at a bar. Shows start at 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., with seating beginning at 7:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. respectively. The atmosphere is focused entirely on the music, with silence requested before the concert begins.