Since recording his first album just over 20 years ago, Chris Potter has earned his stature as the most commandingly skilled saxophonist of his generation, an improviser of deft insight and athletic poise. His high profile as a sideman in the studio - with Steely Dan, and in bands led by the drummer Paul Motian, the bassist Dave Holland and, most recently, the guitarist Pat Metheny _has sometimes overshadowed his output as a bandleader.

His flagship over much of the last decade has been Underground, a band defined by its embrace of rock and funk. Potter preserves that band's attunement to texture but adheres to an acoustic palette on "The Sirens" (ECM), his finest effort yet. The album features Craig Taborn, of Underground, on piano; David Virelles on celeste, harmonium and prepared piano; Larry Grenadier on bass; and Eric Harland on drums.

"The Sirens" draws inspiration from "The Odyssey," the ancient Greek epic poem of exile, homecoming and the treacherous path in between. Last month, on the eve of his own epic journey - a 40-city North American itinerary with the Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour - Potter discussed "The Sirens" and its connection to Homer's ancient work at Kefi, a Greek restaurant on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The first item ordered was naturally Mythos Hellenic Lager Beer. Here are excerpts from that conversation.

___What drew you to "The Odyssey"?

___ I read it in high school and thought it was cool but didn't go much further than that. When I reread it, I was really taken with the beauty of it and how many of the themes in the book resonate. It's good and evil, these big decisions - and a lot of stuff about interpersonal relationships, which is rare for an ancient text, I think. It's very psychological, in a way. I really didn't have any intention of writing music about "The Odyssey." I had a musical sound that I wanted to get to: I knew I wanted it to be this acoustic thing, I knew I wanted it to be kind of spacious. And the mood of the book, this out-of-time feeling, really fit in with what I was looking for.

___One translator of "The Odyssey," Robert Fagles, observed that "Homer's work is a performance, even in part a musical event."

___It doesn't feel like a novel - like "art," in the sense of someone observing the world and commenting on it. It feels a little more archetypal than that. It feels created by more than one person, in a certain way.

___Did the music of the text have any influence on your compositions? Obviously we're coming at it from a change: The original meter is dactylic hexameter, and English translations tend to use iambic pentameter.

___I didn't really think so much about the rhythm of the poem. For one thing, as you said, it's very far removed from what the original was. But the kind of language, and this idea of a mythic time and space, was definitely an influence. Also this poetic world, very far removed from the modern, urban world.

___Odysseus is a figure who yearns for home and is buffeted by many forces. Do you relate to that?

___Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's hard for me to even imagine having a different life. As universal as the themes in "The Odyssey" are, there might be some that personally resonate more with me: leaving, and not knowing exactly how it's going to go, or who you're going to run into , or what problems are going to arise. Just that being-away-from-home thing, and returning home.

___And as a touring musician, you're often putting yourself at the mercy of your hosts. There's so much in this story about hospitality and codes of etiquette.

___The whole book is very social. Nothing is in a vacuum at all. And yes, I can definitely vouch for the fact that when a promoter goes out of their way to take the musicians out to a nice dinner, you're going to have a happier band.

___There's a lot of opportunity with "The Odyssey" to write material inspired by monstrosity, whether it's Scylla and Charybdis or the Cyclops. But you chose to focus on either the more sublime or lovelier aspects of the tale. Can you explain that?

___A lot of what's interesting to me is how Odysseus actually interacts with people. He's in these situations where he has to represent himself. That to me is a big reason why it feels so contemporary. A couple of the tunes that are about women - "Penelope" and "Nausikaa" - are played on soprano saxophone. In a way that's them speaking in their voice. It works also because most of the album is on tenor, which is a lower, more male voice: Odysseus. That wasn't all that conscious, but a little bit.

___ And yet the call of the Sirens in the text is described as a "high, thrilling song." You chose to play that song, the album's title track, on bass clarinet.

___I was originally trying to play that song on alto flute, actually. It would have been a little lighter. But when we tried it in the studio, bass clarinet was what seemed to work. It's this singsongy , slightly Gregorian, ancient-sounding melody. The way that I was thinking about it was as an abstract idea about something that seems nice and light and attractive and draws you in - and takes you away from your path. And how dangerous that really is.

___Has there been something like that in your experience?

___I've been lucky to avoid it. But I have that in my personality, I think. For me, with the kind of good fortune that I've had to have worked with so many people, there's been a danger of forgetting what it was that I actually wanted to do as a leader. It would be easy to never deal with that, and just keep working.

___We've established that you identify with the travel-weary aspects of Odysseus' tale. He's also painted as a storyteller: a master of cunning and thinking on his feet.

___Yeah, an improviser. Definitely.

___So that must be another attribute you also identify with.

___I don't know if I'm on that level. But yeah, that is kind of the gig , to think on your feet. All the time too. Obviously when you're onstage, but even when you're not. That seems to be a thing about great jazz musicians, is that whatever they're doing, they're dealing with it in that improvisational kind of way. And maybe that's what makes the music so compelling , that it demonstrates a way of life.