Most listeners don’t necessarily associate saxophonist and composer Chris Potter’s work as sociologically or historically focused. Yet, the saxophonist played a vital role on Low Country (Ropeadope, 2023), which shares the story of the Gullah Geechee people, direct descendants of enslaved Africans who reside on islands off the coast of South Carolina. And, three years later, his Alive With Ghosts Today (Edition, 2026) draws inspiration from the Tony Horwitz’s book, Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid that Sparked the Civil War (Picador, 2012), which covers the story of abolitionist John Brown’s Raid in 1859 in Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. Though the raid proved unsuccessful, Brown’s statements on slavery made him a hero in the North and set the stage for the Civil War, vestiges of which still loom today in a post-Callais America.
For Alive with Ghosts Today, Potter recruited a diverse ensemble: himself on tenor and soprano saxophones with guitarist Bill Frisell, bassist Burniss Travis, drummer Nate Smith, clarinetist Rane Moore, trombonist Zekkerreya El-magharbel, and violinist Sara Caswell. The specific sound sought by adopting such firepower is summarized well by Potter: “Musically, I didn’t want a big band or an orchestra. I wanted something in between, almost like a slightly unruly village band, working with what they have available: … I was imagining a certain sound: Copland, blues, gospel, and African rhythms all living in the same space… It started as a bit of a hope and a prayer, but when everyone leaned in with seriousness and focus, it felt to me like the music took on a life of its own and became larger than any one of us.”
The title track has two versions, bookends that open and close the album. Its name comes from a Langston Hughes poem entitled “October 16: the Raid.” Hughes’ grandmother was first married to Lewis Sheridan Leary, one of the raiders killed that day. With Frisell’s guitar as the fulcrum throughout the album, the loosely arranged and executed music feels haunted by the past pressing on today’s tensions. The melancholic title track serves as an overture, with multiple unison passages. That same vibe continues into “Osawatomie Brown,” imbued by a fierce solo from Potter. The title reflects John Brown’s nickname, one earned during the fight between opposing and pro-slavery forces in Kansas in 1856, at the Battle of Osawatomie.
The title of “The Heavens in Scarlet” comes from a document by Brown, written before the raid presaging what is to come. It begins calmly with Frisell’s judicious guitar notes before the ensemble weaves harmonic colors. Potter eventually snakes through on tenor. The rhythm section establishes a bluesy/gospel cadence as the music becomes increasingly intense, visualizing the impending violence before ending with “Hung be the Heavens in Scarlet.”
For “Sister Annie,” Smith sets a brisk groove as Frisell projects an Americana-like lyricism of the type for which he is well-known. The ensemble plays with spirited fervor, honoring Brown’s daughter, Annie, who, along with her sister-in-law Martha, helped ready the men for battle, while hiding such preparations from the townspeople.
Caswell, together with Frisell, leads the slow-moving lament of “This Earth Would Have No Charms For Me.” The title is derived from a letter Harriet Newby, a slave, wrote to her freeman husband, Dangerfield Newby. She placed it in his pocket as he prepared for the raid, the skirmish where he would ultimately perish. She wrote: “If I thought I should never see you, this earth would have no charms for me.” Potter captures the pain of a great love lost through a burning unaccompanied solo. It is followed by the punchy “Into Africa” featuring both trombonist El-magharbel and a riveting dialogue between Potter’s tenor and Moore’s clarinet. Smith’s driving drum solo takes it out. Aptly, the album closes with “Mine Eyes,” using the same melody as “John Brown’s Body,” and tying to the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” It becomes clear by the end of the album that while Brown’s raid would prove unsuccessful, the ghosts of those fighting for freedom laid the path for the full war and abolition yet to come. Passion is evident in the ensemble’s feisty rendering.
The deluxe release of Alive with Ghosts Today also includes two additional tracks. The first is a version of John Coltrane’s “Song of the Underground Railroad,” tying the lineage of those yearning for freedom to those doing similarly sonically. The second is “Going Home,” which excerpts Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 in E minor, “From the New World.” The inclusion of this piece is a subtle nod to the world we still strive for. Dvorak’s work references the Americas while inspired by African American spirituals and Indigenous American music. In turn, Black American Music has turned his piece into a standard. It all suggests a broader diverse community our country’s ideals strive towards but have yet to reach.
Throughout Alive with Ghosts Today, Potter does not dominate the proceedings at the expense of everyone else. He proves to be a composer of the first order. Frisell and the bass-drum tandem of Burniss and Smith anchor every track while the rest of the ensemble serves almost as vocalists, as if the entire album were a musical in another dimension. As the ever-humble Potter says in the liners, “I have no easy answer. I only feel that ours is a beautiful, heartbreaking country, where we are still living with these ghosts.” This could well be one of this year’s most important releases, one that goes well beyond simply musical excellence.
‘Alive with Ghosts Today’ is out now on Edition Records. It can be purchased on Bandcamp.
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