Chris Potter – Alive with Ghosts Today

Chris Potter – Alive with Ghosts Today

Chris Potter's "Alive With Ghosts Today" brings together Bill Frisell, Nate Smith and Burniss Travis with Rane Moore (clarinet), Zekkereya El-Magharbel (trombone) and Sara Caswell (violin) in a deliberately unconventional ensemble that embeds Potter's tenor and soprano saxophone in a textured, human soundscape. Centered around the story of abolitionist John Brown and the raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859, the album confronts the listener with a moment that exposed deep fractures at the heart of the American narrative. "It's a story that encapsulates the complexity and tragedy of America in a single moment," Potter says. "It seemed important to me to deal with it now."

"I didn't want a big band or an orchestra - I wanted something in between, almost like a slightly unruly village band," Potter explains. The instrumentation, which draws on Copland's openness, blues, gospel and African rhythms, creates a distinctively American atmosphere that feels rooted yet subtly shifted. Written with specific voices in mind and informed by the musicians' earnestness and focus, the project began, as Potter puts it, "as hope and prayer" before becoming something collective - "bigger than any one of us individually".

Tracklist:
1. Alive With Ghosts Today 1
2. Osawatomie Brown
3. The Heavens In Scarlet
4. Sister Annie
5. This Earth Would Have No Charms For Me
6. Into Africa
7. Mine Eyes
8. Alive With Ghosts Today 2

Label: Edition
Released: 2026