Gary Potter

Huyton born (Liverpool) Gary Potter is an astonishing jazz guitar player who is renowned the world over. No market driven jazzman, Gary's music is played with technical mastery, originality, humour and daring. As well as being a regular face, he is also a firm favourite at the many national and international festivals he frequents and was also featured in the channel 4 film 'The Django Legacy' citing Django Reinhardt as a major influence in his playing.

"Minor Swing"

Label:String Jazz
Gypsy jazz guitarist Gary Potter may just be the best thing to come out of Liverpool since the Mopheads. In no special order. Potter is a fan of Django Reinhardt’s hot jazz, American country music, and roots rock’n’roll, and he manages to blend all of his disparate influences into dazzling and dizzying solos on this new CD of Gypsy swing standards.

You may remember Potter from his cameo appearance in the famous John Jeremy documentary Django’s Legacy or from his debut CD on Fret Records years back. Since then, however, Potter has done some woodshedding: His playing has developed dramatically to flower on this new CD. You could hardly believe that it’s the same guitarist.

Potter is backed here by long-time musical pals Nils Solberg on rhythm guitar, bassist Andy Crowdy, and violinist Christian Garrick. Potter picks a Rob Aylward Selmer-style guitar while Solberg plays la pompe on a battered but original Selmer.

Listening to Potter dance his merry way through classics like "I Can’t Give You Anything But Love," "Sweet Georgia Brown," and Django’s "Belleville," the guitarist could be accused of trying to fit too many notes into a song. But Potter doesn’t sound like he’s trying to impress with fretboard pyrotechnics—he’s simply having fun. He weaves rockabilly-approved doublestops, Merle Travis licks, Wes Montgomery octaves, Jerry Reed country picking, and yes, Django quotes into his solos. It all adds up to rollicking Gypsy jazz that only Potter could have created.