From Homer to Stravinsky with Chris Potter

Jim McNeely surrounded by the members of his Frankfurt Radio Big Band (courtesy of Jazz Promo Services)

Back during my tenure with the now-defunct Examiner.com, I had the opportunity, in January of 2013, to write about The Sirens, which marked tenor saxophonist Chris Potter’s debut as leader of a jazz combo. At that time I described the album as “a jazz refraction of Homer’s Odyssey,” in which, through his improvisations, Potter would serve as “a singer of tales,” Albert Lord’s description of Homer as an oral poet. This past February Double Moon Records released a new “refraction” album entitled Rituals, this time bringing Potter in as a guest soloist with the Frankfurt Radio Big Band (also know as “hr-BigBand”) led by Jim McNeely. This is the latest instance in which Amazon.com is not the best of sources, but Presto Music has created a Web page for both the physical CD and downloads in both MP3 and FLAC formats.

On this new album McNeely is the “agent of refraction,” while Potter is his featured soloist. The “object of refraction” is the score that Igor Stravinsky composed for Vaslav Nijinsky’s two-part ballet “The Rite of Spring” (le sacre du printemps) This time the “source” of the refraction is music, rather than epic poetry; and, for what it is worth, those familiar with the Stravinsky catalog know that he made a few ventures into jazz and ragtime in his own efforts as a composer. However, as the advance material for this new album makes clear, the title composition on this album, which accounts for six tracks, is “not merely a jazz version of ‘Le Sacre du Printemps.’” Rather, Stravinsky’s score inspired the synthesis of a new “tonal and rhythmic language.”

That said, anyone familiar with the source will recognize its influence. The first three movements of Rituals are entitled “Adoration;” and the next two bear the title “Sacrifice.” These parallel the two parts of Stravinsky’s score. Only in the final movement does the music depart from Stravinsky’s influences. (However, the movement concludes with an explicit reminder of Stravinsky’s opening measures.) Nevertheless, I have to say that I was readily drawn into the many reflections on that original score to the extent that my knowledge of Stravinsky’s music served as a valuable guide through McNeely’s structures, almost as if Stravinsky were serving as Virgil to McNeely’s Dante. (This may actually be the other way around: I am still wrestling with that proposition!)

Taken in its entirety, the duration of Rituals is a little less that 35 minutes. Since that is more than a little skimpy for a CD, McNeely decided to fill out the album with four Potter compositions. Two of them, “Dawn” and “Wine Dark Sea,” were originally tracks on Potter’s The Sirens album, which was released by ECM. The other two are taken from earlier recordings, each on a different label. “The Wheel” was taken from The Underground, released by Sunnyside in 2006; and “Okinawa” was included on the live album This Will Be, released by Storyville in 2001. That said, I have to say that I came away particularly impressed by Potter, not only for his virtuoso technique but also for his skills  as a “team player,” interaction with the rich and diverse resources of the Frankfurt Radio Big Band. This new album is as much a rethinking of the big band style as it is one of what is probably Stravinsky’s best-known composition.