Compelling Set by a Relative Unknown

There’s never been a shortage of saxophonists in jazz, and the past decade has seen new players arriving at a dizzying pace. Some--like Joshua Redman, Branford Marsalis and Joe Lovano--have broken into wide visibility fairly quickly. Others have had more difficulty emerging into view.

Chris Potter, who opened a six-night run at the Jazz Bakery on Tuesday, is one of the latter. And the quality of his performance underscored how difficult it can be for a gifted artist--despite a great deal of activity--to break through to the top level of awareness.

Potter has recorded or toured with dozens of prominent players, including Jim Hall, Dave Douglas, Marian McPartland, Tom Harrell, Dave Holland and the group Steely Dan, and released seven albums of his own. Reviews of his work have been almost universally filled with praise for his imagination and skill.

Yet he drew only a moderate-sized crowd to his opening night, and one suspects that, even within the community of jazz fans, he is still a relatively unfamiliar name. But, based on his set at the Bakery, he’s clearly deserving of wider recognition. Working with an ensemble--pianist Kevin Hays, bassist Scott Colley and drummer Clarence Penn--that fully participated in every one of his groundbreaking musical excursions, Potter delivered an extraordinary set of performances.

Shifting through mostly original material, with a stunning stopover in an Ornette Coleman tune, he was a riveting soloist. Although occasional references to Sonny Rollins surfaced from time to time, Potter’s musical voice was primarily his own, building upon the jazz tradition from an assured, contemporary point of view. With technique to burn, he nonetheless never resorted to rapid-fire scales and arpeggios for their own sake, generating solos filled with an astonishing sense of compositional cohesiveness. And he did all that with a whirlwind rhythmic drive.

Each of Potter’s musical associates was similarly creative, engaging one another smoothly in the ensemble passages, displaying compelling visions of their own in solo offerings. Penn, amazingly, conquered the Bakery’s drum-resistant acoustics with ease, concocting a marvelous array of sounds. It was, all in all, one of the finer jazz outings of the year, and yet another affirmation of Potter’s right to be included among the music’s finest practitioners.* The Chris Potter Quartet at the Jazz Bakery. 3233 Helms Ave., Culver City. Tonight through Saturday at 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., $22. (310) 271-9039.