First, some general recommendations based on what I’ve been listening to this month. Then, a starter pack for one of my favorite living jazz saxophonists.

Boz Scaggs - Down Two Then Left

A Strong Songs listener dropped this record into the Discord after my recent episode on Toto’s “Rosanna,” noting that Steve Lukather’s guitar solo at the end of “A Clue” was probably their favorite of his. It’s a great call, and it was nice to get back to this record, which features a who’s who of killing 70s session players, including most of the members of Toto.

Ben Folds - Rockin’ The Suburbs

I am well overdue for a Ben Folds episode of Strong Songs, as many people are happy to remind me. It won’t happen until next year, but I’m getting my start by listening to a lot of his music, starting with Rockin’ The Suburbs, which I never really spent that much time with. I love Folds so much, haha.

Dire Straits - Making Movies

I recently finished (and enjoyed) Joe Hill’s novel The Fireman, an entertaining apocalypse thriller that is in an interesting sort of conversation with one of Hill’s famous dad’s most well-known novels, The Stand. In addition to all the easter eggs (Noz-o-la, Watership Down, a character named Harold Cross), Hill shares his dad's penchant for writing characters who all seem to enjoy music a generation older than most people their age. Dire Straits’ “Romeo and Juliet,” a great song from a great 1980 album, somehow improbably becomes a love anthem in the book.

Lucius - Second Nature

I got hipped to this group by Apple TV’s Platonic, a very funny show that Emily and I recently started watching. Lucius co-founders Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig have provided supporting vocals for artists ranging from Joni Mitchell to Mavis Staples, and it’s very cool that they’ve also kept time for a project of their own. Their track “Next to Normal” accompanies the extended credits at the start of each season of Platonic, and it is a hell of a lot of fun.

SML - How You Been

The next few albums were all picks from the Strong Songs Discord listening club, and all three have made it into my regular rotation. SML is a fascinating LA music collective making surprising and enjoyable instrumental music that never relies on chops when texture will do.

Nothing But Thieves - Dead Club CIty

Nothing But Thieves is one of those bands like Marianas, where I’ve never heard of them and discovering one of their albums is a gateway to a decade-plus recording career. This album is a ton of fun, and I bet these guys put on a hell of a show.

Wilco - Sky Blue Sky

(Pluribus voice) Fun fact: I once opened for Nels Cline’s band Banyan at the Red Devil Lounge in San Francisco. I was headlining with my dance-rock band and the club added Banyan to the bill, since they were much more famous than we were. It was an incredibly bad fit vibes-wise, but it was very fun to get to watch Nels do his thing after our set. Banyan had a painter on stage with them, painting these huge murals to go along with the improvised music. It was incredibly cool.

Sky Blue Sky is Cline’s first studio record as a member of Wilco, and while I haven’t seen them live (I KNOW) it seems clear that he helped them transform and elevate their music to a new place. The guitar digressions on Sky Blue Sky are all so much fun - so inventive and enjoyable, filled with impressive playing without straying too far from Wilco’s grounded sound.

And now, to try something different…

Chris Potter is the kind of player you could describe as being “your favorite saxophonist’s favorite saxophonist.” He is also, incidentally, one of my favorite saxophonists, though I understand that I am probably not your favorite saxophonist. Everyone my age or younger has learned something or other by transcribing him, and probably stolen a lick or two.

If you aren’t hip to Chris, here are a handful of recordings of his, featuring solos that I find particularly iconic or emblematic of his approach to the horn. They betray a bias toward the era when I listened to him most (the early 2000s), but he has made plenty of great records since these, too.

“Prime Directive” (Live at Birdland) w/ Dave Holland Quintet, 2003

This is classic early 2000s Potter, as he and trombonist Robin Eubanks tore it up in Holland’s groundbreaking small group. Simultaneous improvisation was the order of the day for this group, and “Prime Directive” is less a song and more of just a (killing) lick around which the band can build. This track gradually accumulates until it crashes apart, as Eubanks and Potter head off on an extended blowing duet. What rhythm section?

“Lost and Found” w/ Dave Holland Quintet, 2001

This studio record from 2001, a couple years before the above Birdland date, was one of the first Potter solos that I fell in love with. At 6:30 he rips into this repeated two-note riff—built around a simple fifth—that worked its way into my playing and never left. (I have even carried it with me to my guitar playing!) This recording was also an awakening for me about the potential of odd meters like 7/4 when it comes to improvising.

“Janie Runaway” w/ Steely Dan, 2000

I have already dedicated a whole segment of a “Strong Solos” episode of Strong Songs to this solo, so I’ll just say it continues to be one of my favorite tightly contained pop sax solos. Immaculate.

“Sun King (for Sonny Rollins)” - from Gratitude, 2001

I played this song on my senior recital at UMiami, is how much I loved it. And still do. Another 7/4 tune that’s surprisingly approachable to blow over, as long as you don’t worry too much about sounding as good as Chris. I also like how it goes 4+3+3+4, a neat way of shaking up the groove while fundamentally staying in 7.

“Just As I Am” - from Traveling Mercies, 2002

Potter is famous for his tenor playing, but I’ve always felt warmly toward his Potter’s bass clarinet playing, too. It is (perhaps) an underrated part of his bag. There are a lot of burners on Traveling Mercies, but it’s the softer, more textured stuff that I really love - his soaring take on “Just As I Am” chief among them. (“Azaela” is another standout, if you’re jumping around.) Whenever Potter goes into the B.Clar’s upper register, the clouds part.

And to get SOMEthing more recent in here…

“305” - w/ Cory Wong, Electric Kif, and Metropole Orkest, 2024

I went to school in the 305, and I actually do remember there being a lot of pretty amazing sax solos. So this song is kind of an accurate representation. It’s a collaboration between Miami-based jazz group Electric Kif, guitar superstar Cory Wong, and Metropole Orkest, with Potter in the solo chair. Pretty stacked lineup. The song is plenty of fun for the first few minutes, but then Chris starts working into the second half of his solo, and the roof blows off.

That’ll do it for now. If you, like me, are horrified by the violence our federal government continues to inflict on the people of Minnesota, and inspired by the courage of the ordinary Minnesotans who have stood together against it, I hope you’ll check out Stand With Minnesota, where you’ll find a comprehensive directory of organizations who are helping people stay safe. All of them are accepting donations.

I have a lot of friends and family in the Twin Cities, and I can’t believe they and so many others have had to endure this. The shame of it is sickening.

I’ll leave you with this pic of Appa, who climbed up on the couch to sit next to me while I practiced guitar down in the studio. Her tail was a pretty good metronome.

Take care, and keep listening -
~KH
1/29/2026