5. Chris Potter Underground Orchestra – Imaginary Cities
Chris Potter is a tenor sax dude I had never heard of until this year. For this record he has expanded his regular jazz group into a small orchestra, adding a string quartet, vibes and an extra bass. It has the net effect of creating music that sounds very composed while feeling very open. It is largely consonant, but still intelligent and compelling. Some critics have use the word transcendent and I suppose it does have a bit of that. It is on the ECM label, so you know it has that super clean Manfred Eicher Euro sound that ain’t usually my bag. But here it works. It works really well. If you want something to play while you blissfully stare out the window, this is a mighty fine place to start.
Northwest Underground rock 1980 'til the End of Time
- Tom's Rant