Transcription I - Chris Potter "Everything Happens to Me"

Paul Motian’s “On Broadway Vol. 4: The Paradox of Continuity” is one of my favourite standards recordings. It was listening to this record that first exposed me to the late piano player Masabumi Kikuchi. With repeated listening, I have especially come to appreciate Larry Grenadier’s incredible playing and the way it ties the ensemble together. The track “Everything Happens to me” features a really wonderful solo from Chris Potter. You can find the full transcription here and watch my performance of it here. There is a lot to talk about with this solo but if I were to offer only one observation it would be this: notice the incredible voice leading in measures 1-4 and 13-14. In measure 1-4 Potter weaves melodies around descending half-steps from an F# on beat one of measure one to a B on the ‘and’ of beat two in measure 4. He does this again, weaving melodies around a descending half-step sequence, starting with a G# on beat one of measure 13 and ending on an F on beat two of measure 14.