I'm torn gathering my thoughts about this record. On the one hand how could you not be impressed by the sheer feat of one musician playing not only piano, keyboards, electric and acoustic guitars and bass guitar but also drums, clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, alto flute, percussion, throwing in a bunch of samples, and of course blowing saxophone.
On the other beyond the often lush melodies and occasionally but not always unerringly fascinating runs it's hard to engage with There is a Tide at a deeper level. In other words the sheer dynamism you usually get on a Potter record when he's leading his own bands just isn't the same. The cushiony sound feel (we have heard a lot of similar audio quality this year during Lockdown) doesn't help.
One of the world's greatest saxophonists it's probably just that I want to hear him play tenor saxophone exclusively in a more usual situation and wait until things are more normal again and leave it at that. Sometimes less is more. Definitely the robust lead sax line on 'New Life (In the Wake of Devastation)' is more in line with that desire. All in all a record that's easy to admire, harder to love. SG
On Edition
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