The Dreamer Is The Dream

Chris Potter, David Virelles, Joe Martin, Marcus Gilmore

EN / DE
For his third ECM release as a leader, Chris Potter presents a new acoustic quartet that naturally blends melodic rhapsody with rhythmic muscle. The group includes superlative musicians well known to followers of ECM’s many recordings from New York over the past decade: keyboardist David Virelles, bassist Joe Martin and drummer Marcus Gilmore, who each shine in addition to the leader on multiple horns. The Dreamer Is the Dream features Potter on tenor saxophone – the instrument that has made him one of the most admired players of his generation – in the striking opener “Heart in Hand” and such album highlights as “Yasodhara,” as well as on soprano sax (“Memory and Desire”) and bass clarinet (the title track). Potter is an artist who “employs his considerable technique in service of music rather than spectacle,” says The New Yorker, and his composing develops in texture and atmosphere with every album. Along with his previous ECM releases, Imaginary Cities and The Sirens, he has appeared on some of the label’s most acclaimed discs, including Paul Motian’s classic Lost in a Dream and Dave Holland’s Grammy Award-winning What Goes Around.
Auf seinem dritten ECM-Album unter eigenem Namen Leader stellt Chris Potter ein neues akustisches Quartett vor, das rhapsodische Melodik mit rhythmischer Kraft kombiniert. Der Gruppe gehören herausragende Musiker an, die ECM-Hörer von vielen während der letzten Dekade in New York aufgenommenen Alben kennen: Keyboarder David Virelles, Bassist Joe Martin und Schlagzeuger Marcus Gilmore, die hier alle genauso glänzen wie der Leader an seinen diversen Blasinstrumenten. The Dreamer Is the Dream präsentiert Potter nicht nur am Tenorsaxophon – jenem Instrument, an dem er zu einem der meist bewunderten Musiker seiner Generation wurde, etwa im eindrucksvollen Eröffnungsstück „Heart in Hand“ oder in Album-Highlights wie „Yasodhara“ – sondern auch an Sopransaxophon („Memory and Desire“) und Bassklarinette (im Titelstück). Potter ist ein Musiker, der „seine beachtliche Technik im Dienst der Musik einsetzt und nicht als Spektakel“, schrieb der New Yorker. Seine kompositorische Arbeit entwickelt sich hinsichtlich Textur und Atmosphäre mit jedem Album weiter.
Featured Artists Recorded

June 2016, Avatar Studios, New York

Original Release Date

21.04.2017

  • 1Heart In Hand
    (Chris Potter)
    08:19
  • 2Ilimba
    (Chris Potter)
    09:52
  • 3The Dreamer Is The Dream
    (Chris Potter)
    08:18
  • 4Memory And Desire
    (Chris Potter)
    07:52
  • 5Yasodhara
    (Chris Potter)
    10:07
  • 6Sonic Anomaly
    (Chris Potter)
    05:34
Chris Potter, one of jazz’s most powerful jazz reeds-players, has always seemed like the ideal sideman, perhaps better suited to enhancing the stories of others than to generating his own. But there’s a new creative tension within the quartet for his third ECM album as leader, perhaps because there seem to be two key partnerships complementing and challenging each other within it: Potter’s with longtime bass sidekick Joe Martin, and Cuban-American pianist David Virelles’ edgier, contemporary one with drummer Marcus Gilmore. […] the title track is a standout, with its ardent, songlike theme for bass clarinet. But Virelles’ solo on the Indian rhythms of ‘Yasodhara’ – a tapestry of spidery wanderings, long pauses and Cecil Tayloresque bursts, with Gilmore right on his heels – is possibly the session’s most breathtaking improvisation.
John Fordham, The Guardian
 
‘The Dreamer Is the Dream’ is a testament to Potter's composing as much as to his multi-reed instrumentality. He penned each of the compositions here and they all speak to a deeper sense of mortality, portrayed through lyricism and emotive performances. Potter's responsiveness as a leader shines through in the beautifully orchestrated work of this quartet. One of Potter's best to date.
Karl Ackermann, All About Jazz
 
In keeping with making every ECM release a distinct entity, Potter unveils this whole new combo for ‘The Dreamer’, and their musical personalities by themselves alter how his compositions are rendered. It’s tight where it should be, loose where improvisation is needed to take a song to greater heights. The leader himself avails himself to four kinds of reeds, a flute, an African thumb piano and even delving a bit into 21st century sampling. […] With a new quartet and a few new twists but that same elite-class reeds playing and composing, ‘The Dreamer Is The Dream’ keeps Chris Potter at the head of the class.
S. Victor Aaron, Something Else Reviews
 
One of the most important of today’s tenor titans, Chris Potter produces another strong release with the cogent team of David Virelles/p-key, Joe Martin/b and Marcus Gilmore/dr. […] Creative, modern, expressive and still accessible!
George W. Harris, Jazz Weekly
 
‘The Dreamer Is the Dream’ is impressive for all the right reasons. Potter's tunes are all top flight, for one. He appears to have written them for the considerable strength of this band and he makes no attempt to ride herd over them. For their part, the players' intuitive engagement with him and one another is dictated by a collective willingness to let the music do the primary talking and respond in kind. This is yet another strong outing for Potter.
Thom Jurek, All Music
 
Diesmal zeigt er sich mit einem neuen Quartett, das ein sehr durchkonzipiertes Programm aus sechs Stücken Potters interpretiert. Die Expressivität, mit der er spielt – in der Nachfolge Michael Breckers, auf Coltrane und Rollins verweisend – bekommt mit der neuen Gruppe ein interessantes Gegengewicht: durch den kubanischen, in New York lebenden Pianisten David Virelles. Dessen reduzierter Stil, sein immenses Können im Aufbau eines Solos, seine an den jungen Keith Jarrett erinnernde Fantasie zu erleben, gehört zu den Highlights von ‚Dreamer‘.
Karl Lippegaus, Stereo
 
‘The Dreamer Is The Dream’, en quartet, marque un nouveau pas dans sa carrière. […] Ouvrant l’album avec une belle ballade coltranienne (‘Heart In Hand’), il donne libre cours à sa sensibilité, qui est plus vive qu’on ne croyait, avant de se lancer dans une effervescente improvisation  sur ‘Ilimba’, oû le pianiste David Virelles montre l’étendue de son inspiration – un musicien à suivre. Potter brille également à la clarinette basse. La rythmique, constituée de ces as que sont Joe Martin à la contrebasse et Marcus Gilmore à la batterie, est pour beaucoup dans la réussite  de ce disque illustrant le mainstream actuel, qui a abandonné la référence au hard-bop des années 60 et 70.
Michel Contât, Télérama
 
Among great saxophonists, the 46-year-old American reedman, thanks to talent, untold hours spent honing his skills and perhaps divine grace, may well rule supreme. The latest testament to Potter’s abilities is his 19th album as a leader and third album in four years on the famed German label ECM Records. Released late last month, the album features Potter’s staggering talents on tenor saxophone (his main horn), bass clarinet and soprano saxophone on a set of six originals that expand into epic excursions as Potter’s quartet explores them. There are flashes of the dazzling eloquence and especially the expressive power that makes Potter the envy of many of his peers. But more than that, the album resonates with a special gravitas. […] ‘The Dreamer Is The Dream’ packs a huge amount of imagination and significance into its 51 minutes. Given Potter’s inimitable capabilities, plus his agile, world-class sidemen, that should have been expected. Nonetheless, the album’s music continues to surprise and delight over repeated listens.
Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen
 
In diesen Partnern hat Potter selbst (*1971) die kongeniale Gesellschaft für seine überzeugende, traumwandlerisch (selbst-)sichere und gleichzeitig von viel Empathie getragene Musik: viel Kraft, allein schon im Ton (auf allen drei Instrumenten:  dem hauptsächlichen Tenor, das dem des verstorbenen Michael Brecker brüderlich verwandt klingt; dem nie nöligen Sopran – mal intensiv wie eine Oboe, mal sonor wie ein Cello -; dem warmen Sound der Bassklarinette). Eine sehr persönliche Musik ‚in the tradition‘, vom balladesken Intro mit dem sprechenden Titel ‚Heart In Hand‘ bis zum ‚light hearted kicker‘ (Potter), dem ausgelassenen Rausschmeisser „Sonic Anomaly“.
Peter Rüedi, Die Weltwoche
 
Potters emotionale Qualität ist es, seiner Virtuosität ein Gefühl zu verleihen, für das es im Englischen den schönen Ausdruck ‚soaring‘ gibt, der eigentlich den Aufwärtsflug eines Adlers beschreibt […] Für das Album ‚The Dreamer Is The Dream‘ hat der Produzent Manfred Eicher die überschäumende Kreativität in Bahnen kanalisiert, die das Rauschhafte nicht ausklammern, aber auf ein fürs Plattenhören vernünftiges Maß bringen. Es ist das werk eines Ausnahmemusikers, der alle Aussichten hat, als bedeutendster Saxofonist seiner Zeit in die Musikgeschichte einzugehen. Auch wenn nur wenige seinen Namen kennen.
Andrian Kreye Süddeutsche Zeitung
For his third ECM release as a leader, Chris Potter presents a new acoustic quartet that naturally blends melodic rhapsody with rhythmic muscle. The group includes superlative musicians well known to followers of ECM’s many recordings from New York over the past decade: keyboardist David Virelles, bassist Joe Martin and drummer Marcus Gilmore, who each shine in addition to the leader on multiple horns. The Dreamer Is the Dream features Potter on tenor saxophone – the instrument that has made him one of the most admired players of his generation – in the striking opener “Heart in Hand” and such album highlights as “Yasodhara,” as well as on soprano sax (“Memory and Desire”) and bass clarinet (the title track). Potter is an artist who “employs his considerable technique in service of music rather than spectacle,” says The New Yorker, and his composing develops in texture and atmosphere with every album.
 
 Potter and company recorded The Dreamer Is the Dream at New York City’s Avatar Studios, following several days of preproduction run-throughs in Switzerland and a long string of live performances before that. By the time they convened at Avatar, the music flowed out abundantly, with producer Manfred Eicher helping to shape the end result to dramatic effect. Potter says, “As a player, you can get lost in the thicket of things. But Manfred sees the forest, not just the trees. He has a real feel for the big picture – mood, density, an album as storytelling. I’ve made a lot of records with him now, and I appreciate more and more the synergistic give and take with him.”
 
 As for the quartet, its “cross-generational mix of personalities feels special,” Potter says. “Joe Martin I’ve known the longest – we used to play all the same New York clubs back in the ’90s. Along with the fact that he always plays perfectly in tune, he has this focused, deliberate approach to the bass, very clear and supportive – he’s the foundation of the band. This quartet has a big dynamic range, but also more control, allowing me to play in a thoughtful way. Joe is a big part of that.
 
 “Now Marcus, he’s a very individual drummer,” Potter adds. “He doesn’t have a splashy, flashy sound, but one that’s subtle, detailed, very musical. He has his own way of playing and seems to evolve every six months. On piano, David is coming from a unique place, having grown up in Cuba but never playing in any stereotypical Latin way. His musical center is much further to the left than some of his forebears. He has made a serious study of Cuban folkloric rhythms but also of avant-garde jazz. He plays with Henry Threadgill, and then I’ll see him working on a Ligeti etude. The rhythmic sophistication of David’s playing is just extraordinary. And the way David and Marcus interact rhythmically has this particular generational character – it’s their own thing. It’s hard to put your finger on it, but Joe and I share it in our own way. Our generation – with people like Brad Mehldau, Joshua Redman, Kurt Rosenwinkel – has its own sensibility, its own center of rhythmic gravity. Marcus and David’s generation is building on what we did just as we did on the generation before us. That’s challenging – and inspiring.”
 
Potter describes his compositional method as often being “like a dream state.” “Heart in Hand,” “Memory and Desire” and the album’s title track each came from such free-associative writing sessions. The title track includes some of Potter’s most expressive playing on bass clarinet, while “Memory and Desire” is notable for its opening atmosphere set by samples as well as the multiple woodwind overdubs, Potter having imagined it scored all of a piece. He explored inspirations further afield with “Yasodhara,” named for the wife Buddha left behind; this track reveals its Indian influence in a 10-minute cycling of tempos, along with being marked by an especially dramatic extended improvisation by Virelles. “Ilimba” evokes Africa, with Potter designing the piece around a pattern he wrote on the titular thumb piano; the piece also includes an exciting drum solo from Gilmore. “Sonic Anomaly” is the album’s “light-hearted kicker,” in Potter’s words.
 
The creative process for each of Potter’s ECM albums has varied widely, part of an ideal of evolution. “One of the challenges in jazz is that we have to ask ourselves how comfortable we are working in a different way from the time before – and pushing past that,” he says. “I try to keep in mind that the primary value of jazz is its aesthetic of surprise, not only for the audience but for the artist. It’s the art of making it up as you go along, taking advantage of happy accidents and finding the story to unfold on the way. That’s when the magic happens.”