Chris Potter Underground Orchestra: ‘Imaginary Cities’

Chris Potter, saxophone & composition

Chris Potter (born January 1, 1971) is an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist.

Chris Potter was born in Chicago, Illinois, but his family soon moved to Columbia, South Carolina, where he spent his formative years. Potter showed an early interest in a wide variety of different music and easily learned several instruments including the guitar and piano. He quickly realized after hearing Paul Desmond that the saxophone would be the vehicle that would best allow him to express himself musically.

He played his first professional jazz gig on alto sax at age thirteen after mastering the complex musical language of Charlie Parker. He developed a devoted local following while performing with noted Columbia jazz musicians Johnny Helms and Terry Rosen as well as with others in the jazz community who nurtured what was recognized as a prodigious musical talent.

After leaving Columbia upon his graduation from Dreher High School, Chris attended college in New York City, first at the New School, and later at the Manhattan School of Music. Upon his arrival in New York he began performing with bebop legend Red Rodney and quickly gained a reputation as a rising new star of the saxophone.

Potter has released over 15 albums as a leader and performed as a sideman on more than 150 CDs with many leading musicians including Red Rodney, Pat Metheny, Marian McPartland, Patricia Barber, Kenny Werner, the Mingus Big Band, Paul Motian, Ray Brown, Jim Hall, James Moody, Dave Douglas, Joe Lovano, Wayne Krantz, Mike Mainieri, Steve Swallow, Steely Dan, Dave Holland, Joanne Brackeen, Adam Rogers and many more.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Potter_(jazz_saxophonist)

Adam Rogers, guitars

Adam Rogers is an American guitarist specializing in post bop, contemporary jazz, and classical music. Rogers has had a prolific and extensive session history as a recording guitarist having played on over 150 commercially released recordings. He is currently a member of the Chris Potter Underground in addition to leading his own “acoustic” jazz quartets and quintets as well as the genre bending electric trio DICE. He was a founding member and co leader of the eclectic group Lost Tribe. He has also performed and or recorded with Michael Brecker, Cassandra Wilson,Walter Becker, Norah Jones, John Patitucci, Paul Simon, John Zorn, Donny McCaslin, David Binney, Bill Evans (saxophonist), Dekel Bor, Simon Shaheen and Regina Carter among many others. He is a highly versatile player covering many areas of music but is best known for his work in the modern jazz idiom.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Rogers_%28musician%29

Craig Taborn, piano

Craig Marvin Taborn (/ˈteɪˌbɔːrn/; born February 20, 1970) is an American pianist, organist, keyboardist and composer. He works solo and in bands, mostly playing various forms of jazz. He started playing piano and Moog synthesizer as an adolescent and was influenced at an early stage by a wide range of music, including by the freedom expressed in recordings of free jazz and contemporary classical music.

While still at university, Taborn toured and recorded with jazz saxophonist James Carter. Taborn went on to play with numerous other musicians in electronic and acoustic settings, while also building a reputation as a solo pianist. He has a range of styles, and often adapts his playing to the nature of the instrument and the sounds that he can make it produce. His improvising, particularly for solo piano, often adopts a modular approach, in which he begins with small units of melody and rhythm and then develops them into larger forms and structures.

In 2011, Down Beat chose Taborn as winner of the electric keyboard category, as well as rising star in both the piano and organ categories. By the end of 2014, Taborn had released five albums under his own name and appeared on more than 80 as a sideman.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Taborn

Steve Nelson, vibraphone and marimba

Steve Nelson (born August 11, 1954 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an American vibraphonist, and has been a member of Dave Holland’s Quintet and Big Band for over a decade. He graduated from Rutgers University with both Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in music, and his teaching activities have included a position at Princeton University.^[1] He has appeared at concerts and festivals worldwide and has made recordings as the leader of his own group. As a resident of the New York area he has performed and recorded with many musicians, including Kenny Barron, Bobby Watson,Mulgrew Miller, David “Fathead” Newman, Johnny Griffin and Jackie McLean.

His most recent recording as leader is Sound-Effect (2007), featuring pianist Mulgrew Miller, Peter Washington on bass, and Lewis Nash on drums.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Nelson_%28vibraphonist%29

Fima Ephron, bass guitar

Fima Ephron is a British-American bassist. He began playing bass at age 13, attending a high school for music and the arts in New York, and was playing professionally by age 14.

Ephron has performed or recorded with numerous eminent artists in the jazz, funk and progressive idioms. Among them are: Screaming Headless Torsos, Lost Tribe, Walter Becker, Gil Scott Heron, Natalie Merchant, Lunar Crush (Dave Fiuczynski & John Medeski), John Zorn, Kurt Rosenwinkle, Chris Potter, Don Byron, Vijay Iyer and many others.

In 2001, Ephron released his debut as leader, entitled “Soul Machine,’ on the Tzadik label; the album was met high acclaim.

In addition to his broad musical endeavors, Ephron is also a skilled carpenter and house builder.

Source: http://www.fimaephron.com/

Scott Colley, acoustic bass

Scott Colley is an American jazz bassist. Born on November 24, 1963 in Los Angeles, he began studying bass at age 11, and at 13 undertook studies with bassist Monty Budwig. After graduating from high school, he was granted a full scholarship to the California Institute for the Arts, where he focused on composition and jazz studies while also studying privately with Charlie Haden and classical bassist Fred Tinsley (of the Los Angeles Philharmonic). In 1986, he began touring and recording with jazz vocal legend Carmen McRae. In 1988 he graduated Cal Arts with a Bachelor of Music degree.His extensive and successful career as performer and recording artists has seen him collaborate with such jazz legends as Herbie Hancock, Jim Hall, Andrew Hill, and Michael Brecker. His remarkably empathetic skills, strong melodic sense and improvisational abilities have served him well in groups led by colleagues Chris Potter, Adam Rogers, Brian Blade, David Binney, and Kenny Werner. But it is as a composer and bandleader in his own right that Colley has flourished in recent years, as evidenced by a string of recordings, beginning with his 1996 debut Portable Universe, (Freelance) and continuing with 1997’s This Place (SteepleChase), 1998’s Subliminal (Criss Cross), 2000’s The Magic Line (Arabesque) 2002’s Initial Wisdom (Palmetto), 2007’s Architect of the Silent Moment (CAM jazz), and the 2010-release, Empire (CAM jazz).Scott currently resides in New York City.

Source: http://www.scottcolley.com/about.aspx

Nate Smith, drums

Ira Nathaniel “Nate” Smith (b. December 14, 1974) is an American drummer, composer, songwriter and producer.

Born and raised in Chesapeake, Virginia, his musical talent became apparent at the age of eleven, after picking up the drums and learning to play the piano by ear. After high school, he went on to earn a percussion performance scholarship and pursued his musical studies at James Madison University, where he received a B.S. in Media Arts and Design in 1997. While still in college, Nate was recruited by the great jazz singer Betty Carter to participate in her esteemed Jazz Ahead program, which has produced an impressive list of alumni including Jason Moran, Cyrus Chestnut, Jacky Terrason, and Casey Benjamin, among many others. After college, he was invited to continue his studies at Virginia Commonwealth University as a member of the Carpenter Fellowship Program.  In graduate school he met and performed with the legendary jazz bassist and composer Dave Holland.  He continued to perform occasionally with Dave over the next few years, finally joining his GRAMMY-award winning Quintet and Big Band in 2003.  In early 2004, he joined saxophonist Chris Potter’s group Chris Potter Underground, and has since recorded three albums with the ensemble.  Since then, he has gone on to play or record with an array of fantastic and diverse artists, including:  Ravi Coltrane, Jose James, Nicholas Payton,  John Pattituci, Adam Rogers, Regina Carter, Mark de Clive-Lowe andLionel Loueke. In 2012, Mr. Smith did a 35-City US/Europe tour with pop songwriting legend Joe Jackson.  He has appeared on The Today Show, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, The Late Show with David Letterman and Conan.  He was featured in the October 2012 issue of Modern Drummer magazine, and a full-length web interview with iDrum magazine.

Source: http://www.natesmithmusic.com/about/

Mark Feldman, violin

Mark Feldman (born 1955 in Chicago) is an American jazz violinist.

Feldman worked in Chicago from 1973 to 1980, and in Nashville, Tennessee from 1980 to 1986. He worked in New York City and Western Europe from 1986. Feldman often works with John Zorn, Sylvie Courvoisier, John Abercrombie, The Masada String Trio, Dave Douglas, Uri Caine, and Billy Hart. He has played on recordings by Michael Brecker, Lee Konitz, Joe Lovano, and Chris Potter. At New York’s Lincoln Center he played in duo with pianists Paul Bley and Muhal Richard Abrams. In 2010 Feldman Released two Recordings. “Oblivia” a duo recording of original music with pianist/composer Sylvie Courvoisier on Tzadik Records. “To Fly To Steal” with the Mark Feldman/Sylvie Courvoisier Quartet Featuring Bassist Thomas Morgan And Drummer Gerry Hemmingway on The Swiss Label Intakt. In 2006, Feldman’s recording What Exit was released on ECM,which featured British Pianist John Taylor. In 1995 he released Music for Violin Alone, a collection of his Improvisations for Solo Violin, on Tzadik Records. In 2000 he released Book of Tells on Enja Records, a recording of his compositions for string quartet.

In September 2012, Feldman co-produced with violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, the debut album of Scott Tixier by writing the liner notes for the release on Sunnyside Records.

Feldman is married to the Swiss pianist Sylvie Courvoisier.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Feldman

Joyce Hammann, violin

Equally at home on the concert stage, in a jazz club, or in front of 17,000 screaming fans at a rock concert, Joyce Hammann’s musical versatility and virtuosity remarkably distinguish her from the rest. Her performances have been hailed as “splendid soloing” and as having a “sweet, rich tone” by The New York Times.

Performing and recording with such artists as Paul McCartney, Sting, Michael Jackson and Bruce Springsteen, Joyce’s discography includes John Zorn’s String Quartets, Sam Zyman’sBashe, Uri Caine’s Wagner and Venezia, Mozart Re-imagined and The Othello Syndrome, Michael Breckers’ Grammy award winning Wide Angles, Gil Goldstein’s Under Rousseau’s Moon, Ted Nash’s Double Quartet and Mark Feldman’s Book of Tells.  Currently she is the Concertmaster for the longest running show on Broadway, The Phantom of the Opera. She continues to perform as a member of The Harlem Chamber Players, The Craftsbury Chamber Players (Vermont) and The Meeting House Players (Cape Cod).

Joyce will be touring Europe with Uri Caine as solo violinist with his jazz ensemble and as concertmaster for Fred Hersch’s Coma Dreams, jazz theater project.

Source: http://about.me/joycehammann

Lois Martin, viola

The violist Lois Martin is originally from York, Pennsylvania. After graduating from the Eastman School of Music, she moved to New York for graduate studies at The Juilliard School. She is a founding member of the Atlantic String Quartet, which is dedicated to the performance of newly written compositions. Her continuing commitment to contemporary music includes performances with the Group for Contemporary Music, the ISCM Chamber Players, the Ensemble Sospeso, Ensemble 21, the New York New Music Ensemble, Speculum Musicae, the Composers’ Guild, the Da Capo Chamber Players, the Composers Forum and Steve Reich and Musicians. Currently, she is principal violist for the Stamford Symphony, OK Mozart Festival and The Little Orchestra Society, and is a member of the Orchestra of St Luke’s. She is also on the faculty of the Composers Conference at Wellesley College and has taught at Princeton University. Throughout her career, she has recorded more than sixty chamber music pieces in many different genres including the GRAMMY^® Award-winning CD Wide Angels, with Michael Brecker.

Source: http://www.naxos.com/person/Lois_Martin/12460.htm

David Eggar, cello

Dave Eggar is an American cellist, pianist and composer.

Eggar was a musical prodigy as a child, beginning to play the cello and piano at age three and performing as a singer and actor on Broadway and at the Metropolitan Opera at age seven. He trained as a classical cellist at the Juilliard School, and later graduated from Harvard University and the Juilliard School’s Doctoral Program. He debuted in Carnegie Hall at 15 as the youngest winner in the history of the Artists International competition. He has appeared throughout the world as a classical soloist, including concerto appearances at Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall,London’s Barbican Center, the Paris Opera, and the Hollywood Bowl. In fact, that is Dave’s cello leading the way at the top of Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida.”

Eggar was a founding member of the FLUX quartet, and has premiered over 100 works of contemporary music, including pieces by Frank Zappa, Charles Ives, Beth Anderson, John Cage,Conlon Nancarrow, Elliott Sharp, Ornette Coleman, John Pattitucci, Oliver Lake, Morton Feldman, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, David Chesky, Gil Evans, Somei Satoh, Lamonte Young, Kirk Hammett, and Augusta Read Thomas.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Eggar