{"id":103165,"date":"2021-02-04T12:35:47","date_gmt":"2021-02-04T17:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/?p=103165"},"modified":"2021-02-04T13:21:28","modified_gmt":"2021-02-04T18:21:28","slug":"chris-potter-transcriptions-and-essays-by-jeff-mcgregor-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/2021\/02\/chris-potter-transcriptions-and-essays-by-jeff-mcgregor-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Potter-Transcriptions and Essays by Jeff McGregor Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the last couple of weeks, \u00a0I have been checking out two amazing transcription books by Jeff McGregor entitled Chris Potter-Transcriptions and Essays<\/em> and Mark Turner-Transcriptions and Essays.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nChris Potter-Transcriptions and Essays by Jeff McGregor<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

If you were to gather ten saxophone players around a table and have a discussion about who the cutting edge modern tenor saxophone players of this era would be, the names of Chris Potter and Mark Turner would undoubtedly be mentioned in that discussion.<\/p>\n

These are two tenor saxophone players that have captured my attention for many decades now. ( I actually went to Berklee with Mark Turner in the late 80’s and even then, I would slow down nonchalantly, bend down and pretend to re-tie my perfectly tied shoelaces as I walked outside his practice room so I could hear what he was working on back then……)<\/p>\n

For this review, I will be writing about the Chris Potter transcription book. Chris Potter caught my attention some years later as I didn’t hear of him until the year 2000 or 2001.\u00a0 I was talking to a fellow musician on a gig and he mentioned Chris Potter’s name in passing.\u00a0 When I told him I had never heard of him, he implored me to go home and check him out.\u00a0 Of course, that is what I immediately did when I got home at 2AM that night, and now years later my iTunes music folder is full of albums featuring Chris Potter!<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nChris Potter-Transcriptions and Essays by Jeff McGregor<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Chris Potter is a saxophone player that seems to always be pushing the boundaries of what we think a saxophone player can do.\u00a0 I can’t even recount all the times I have heard Chris Potter play something on the saxophone and thought, “That’s impossible!”\u00a0 Whether it be playing incredibly complex lines up in the altissmo or down at the bottom end of the horn, unusual and hard to play intervallic lines, playing in odd meters, playing over a jazz standard acapella for 15 minutes straight without repeating any ideas or just his incredibly advanced harmonic and rhythmic lines that just leave you perplexed and in awe while listening to his solos.<\/p>\n

As a transcriber myself, I know firsthand the challenge of trying to transcribe a Chris Potter saxophone solo. His sax solos might start simple enough, but Chris usually travels to what we saxophone players refer to as “insane” in short order.\u00a0 Between trying to figure out the flurry of notes, the rhythmic groupings of the notes, the lines up in the altissimo and then trying to figure out how to write this all down on a piece of paper is time consuming and can also be quite frustrating and infuriating!<\/p>\n

I can’t tell you the number of times I have replayed one small section of a Chris Potter solo trying to figure these elements out while almost pulling out my hair in the process. Jeff McGregor gets much admiration and appreciation from me because of this.\u00a0 He picked the two most advanced tenor saxophonists of this generation to transcribe! Chris Potter and Mark Turner.\u00a0 That is no small feat!<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nChris Potter-Transcriptions and Essays by Jeff McGregor<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The Chris Potter Transcription and Essays<\/em> book is a quality product.\u00a0 It is spiral bound so the book can lay flat on a music stand or desk.\u00a0 The pages are nice and thick quality paper that doesn’t bleed through.\u00a0 The music staves are widely spaced with an average of eight staves to a page.\u00a0 The solos, although incredibly complex, are easy to look at and read as far as the spacing and font sizes.\u00a0 The easily read staves, spacing and fonts actually have the effect of calming the reader down and instilling a sense of confidence that you will be able to play the solo laying out in front of you. Of course, that all flies out the window when you start listening to Chris play the solo……<\/p>\n

Here is a breakdown of the contents of the book from\u00a0 Jeff McGregor’s website<\/a>:<\/p>\n

This new collection of 30 transcriptions follows Chris Potter’s discography from\u00a0Gratitude\u00a0(2001) to\u00a0Circuits\u00a0(2019), including transcriptions from all of Potter’s Underground and ECM albums.<\/em><\/p>\n

The accompanying essays are based on extended interviews with Chris Potter. They follow the history and development of Potter’s ensembles and recordings. Various aspects of Potter’s approach to improvisation\u00a0are discussed\u00a0and excerpts from the transcriptions are analyzed.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Transcriptions are all Bb parts. This project was edited by\u00a0Jim Brenan.<\/em><\/p>\n

230 Pages<\/em><\/p>\n

This collection includes the following transcriptions.<\/em><\/p>\n