Chris Potter: Eagle's Point

The question that comes to mind after listening to Eagle's Point is this: why have the four musicians, who have known each other since the 1990s, never recorded together before? For the combination of Chris Potter, Brad Mehldau, John Patitucci and Brian Blade is a real meeting of minds; the stars are in perfect alignment.

Potter's previous release, Got The Keys To The Kingdom (Edition, 2023), was a live set, recorded at New York's Village Vanguard, and consisted entirely of covers. Eagle's Point is a studio recording and all the tunes are originals written for the occasion by Potter.

There is no bling to be heard here, no b.s., just gutsy substance. Across the album, Potter's writing and performance has an emphasis on exuberance but from time-to-time touches on the kind of gentle delicacy associated with pianist Bill Evans or composer Erik Satie; within every track, and indeed within most of the solos, the atmosphere moves between outgoing and intense to introspective and softly spoken (hear opener "Dream Of Home" on the YouTube below).The quartet, each member listening hard to whoever is center stage, moves through these changes in perfect symmetry, like a small murmuration of starlings wheeling over a landscape. It is all gloriously consonant; the only suggestion of dissonance comes from Potter's broken notes in the final few seconds of the closing "Horizon Dance," a Sonny Rollins-esque romp which promises to break into a straight Saturday night calypso at any moment, but never quite does so.

Like all Potter's albums, Eagle's Point is something which will reward multiple replays, revealing new facets with every spin.

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