Saxofonist

Don’t miss the only Toronto stop of The Bad Plus’s farewell tour! They’ll explore the music of Keith Jarrett with Chris Potter and Craig Taborn.

EPSG:4326

The Bad Plus, Chris Potter, and Craig Taborn

Meridian Arts Centre

With his energetic and intuitive saxophone playing, Chris Potter is one of the most influential jazz musicians on the American scene. He has also made a name for himself as a composer with his skilled arranging technique. Chris Potter comes from Chicago and gave his first professional concert at the age of 13. By his early 20s, the saxophonist was already playing with greats such as Charles Mingus, Red Rodney and John Scofield. The tide has now turned and jazz greats are coming to him - Potter recorded his last CD with Brad Mehldau, John Patitucci and Brian Blade. The musical direction of this project is by arranger and pianist Mike Holober.

WDR Big Band feat. Chris Potter

Alter Schlachthof

With his energetic and intuitive saxophone playing, Chris Potter is one of the most influential jazz musicians on the American scene. He has also made a name for himself as a composer with his skilled arranging technique. Chris Potter comes from Chicago and gave his first professional concert at the age of 13. By his early 20s, the saxophonist was already playing with greats such as Charles Mingus, Red Rodney and John Scofield. The tide has now turned and jazz greats are coming to him - Potter recorded his last CD with Brad Mehldau, John Patitucci and Brian Blade. The musical direction of this project is by arranger and pianist Mike Holober.


Philharmonie

Museum Ludwig

Founded in 2004, the SFJAZZ Collective is our all-star resident ensemble and composer’s workshop that represents what’s happening now in jazz. The group includes music director and tenor saxophonist Chris Potter, tenor saxophonist David Sánchez, trumpeter Mike Rodriguez, vibraphonist Warren Wolf, pianist Edward Simon, bassist Matt Brewer, and drummer Kendrick Scott.

SFJAZZ Collective

SFJAZZ Center

Founded by SFJAZZ in 2004, the SFJAZZ Collective is an all-star ensemble and composer’s workshop that represents what’s happening now in jazz, celebrating its 20th Anniversary in 2024.

Since the beginning, the Collective’s mission has been to perform newly commissioned pieces by each member and fresh arrangements of works by modern masters. Through this pioneering approach, simultaneously honoring music’s greatest figures while championing jazz’s up-to-the-minute directions, the SFJAZZ Collective embodies SFJAZZ’s commitment to jazz as a living, ever-relevant art form.

SFJAZZ Collective: 20th Anniversary Celebration

Jimmy Lyons Stage

Chris Potter joins Brad Mehldau to create a new quartet with John Patitucci and Johnathan Blake that represents the jazz played in the 2000s at the highest levels.



Gil Evans' orchestra wrote one of the most beautiful chapters in the history of Umbria Jazz. Now Pete Levin, one of the members of that band, has brought together some musicians from Evans' orchestras of the 70s and 80s in the Gil Evans Remembered project.

Potter / Mehldau / Patitucci / Blake Gil Evans Remembered

Arena Santa Giuliana

A Columbia, SC native and one of the greatest jazz saxophonists of all time, Chris Potter will join the SC Jazz Masterworks Ensemble for our season finale. Since emerging on the scene as a sideman 30 years ago with Red Rodney, Chris Potter has gone on to play with everybody from Pat Metheny to Steely Dan. DownBeat magazine called him “One of the most studied (and copied) saxophonists on the planet” and JazzTimes identified him as “a figure of international renown.” Potter’s impressive discography includes 18 albums as a leader, as well as sideman appearances on more than 100 albums!

Saxophone Colossus: Chris Potter

Midlands Technical College

Praise house melodies meet modern jazz in an unforgettable celebration of Gullah history and musical heritage. The star-studded performance—helmed by trumpeter, composer, and Guggenheim Fellow Matt White—unites 20-plus South Carolinian artists including Grammy Award-winning drummer Quentin Baxter and renowned saxophonist Chris Potter. Featuring a full jazz band, a string section, three Gullah elders, and a narrator, Lowcountry forms a prismatic view of the vibrant Gullah culture.

Lowcountry: South Carolina Music in the Gullah Tradition

College of Charleston

First assembled for an SFJAZZ performance during the 2017-18 Season, this historic convergence of instrumental giants returns for night four of Dave Holland’s residency, showcasing the singular telepathy they’ve forged over the last seven years and memorialized on their 2019 Edition Records debut Good Hope.

“One of the most studied (and copied) saxophonists on the planet,” (DownBeat) Chris Potter is a standard bearer of modern jazz, a restless bandleader, SFJAZZ Collective musical director, and collaborator with Pat Metheny, Paul Motian, Herbie Hancock, Jim Hall, and the Mingus Big Band.

Since arriving in the Bay Area as a celebrated teenage prodigy trained by his legendary father Alla Rakha, Zakir Hussain has brought the rhythmic sophistication of North Indian classical music into a diverse array of settings from Shakti to Mickey Hart’s Planet Drum, blazing a mind-boggling array of musical trails.

Dave Holland W/ Chris Potter, & Zakir Hussain

Founded by SFJAZZ in 2004, the SFJAZZ Collective is an all-star ensemble and composer’s workshop that represents what’s happening now in jazz, celebrating its 20th Anniversary in 2024.

Dakota

Chris Potter is a phenomenon on the sax. Whether he is pulling solo angular melody lines out of his sleeve or creating soft harmonies with his ensembles, it is always an impressive performance. At the request of the leading San Francisco Jazz Festival – where Potter since last year has been artistic director-in-residence – he wrote a new work Generations. “A meditation on the links between people through time, and on the relationships between events in the past, present and future,” this is how the saxophonist describes his creation.

Chris Potter: Generations

BOZAR

Music Center De Bijloke

De Doelen

As a soloist, composer and bandleader, saxophonist Chris Potter has emerged as a leading light of his generation. DownBeat called him, “One of the most studied (and copied) saxophonists on the planet,” while JazzTimes identified him as, “a figure of international renown” and saxophonist Dave Liebman called him simply, “one of the best musicians around.”

AZIZA: Dave Holland, Chris Potter, Lionel Loueke & Eric Harland

Blue Note Jazz Club

The University of North Texas’s world-famous One O’Clock Lab Band® joins the Houston Symphony and renowned saxophonist Chris Potter for this one-night-only special event! Hear John Williams’s Escapades, a suite for alto saxophone and orchestra based on the popular soundtrack to Catch Me If You Can, followed by an electrifying jazz set by the seven-time Grammy nominated The One O’Clock Lab Band® featuring UNT Professor of Jazz Saxophone Brad Leali. To close, the worlds of jazz and classical music collide with a world-premiere work composed by One O’Clock Lab Band® director, Alan Baylock.

Jazz @ Jones: The One O'Clock Lab Band

Jones Hall

A world-class soloist, accomplished composer, and formidable bandleader, saxophonist Chris Potter has emerged as a leading light of his generation. DownBeat called him, “One of the most studied (and copied) saxophonists on the planet,” while JazzTimes identified him as, “a figure of international renown.” DownBeat also voted him second only to tenor sax great Sonny Rollins in the magazine’s 2008 Readers Poll. The Grammy–nominated Potter is considered one of the finest saxophonists in the world and a potent improvisor. He has performed or recorded with Herbie Hancock, Dave Holland, Joanne Brackeen, John Scofield, Jim Hall, Paul Motian and many others.

Chris Potter Trio

Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society

“One of the most studied (and copied) saxophonists on the planet” (DownBeat), SFJAZZ Collective musical director Chris Potter is undoubtedly one of jazz’s leading lights and a highly engaged student of history. His newest album project, Alive With Ghosts Today, is a stirring set of compositions that explores the power and poignancy of abolitionist John Brown’s life and his 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry that preceded the American Civil War. Joining him on the Edition Records album, and for this performance, is a decidedly off-kilter septet that Potter describes as “a slightly unruly village band” including master guitarist Bill Frisell and a lineup featuring violin, clarinet, trombone, bass, and drums.

Saxofonist

Chris Potter

Events

Upcoming events

Apr 2, 2027

Chris Potter Septet · San Francisco Jazz

Past events

Mar 5, 2026

The Bad Plus, Chris Potter, and Craig Taborn · TO Live

Jul 6, 2025

WDR Big Band feat. Chris Potter · WDR Big Band

About

Chris Potter hasn't added a bio