Lee Konitz
The SideDoor Jazz Club
85 Lyme St
Old Lyme, CT 06371
Oct 19, 2018
8:30 PM EDT
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Lee Konitz, alto saxFrank Kimbrough, pianoJeremy Stratton, bassGeorge Schuller, drums\nAlto Saxophonist Lee Konitz has enjoyed one of the most creative and prolific careers in modern jazz. Spending much of his early career with the orchestras of Claude Thornhill and Stan Kenton, the innovative small groups of pianist Lennie Tristano, and the Miles Davis Nonet ("Birth of the Cool"), Konitz became the consummate freelancer and has remained on the cutting edge of post-bop improvisation ever since.\nWhile occasionally leading a nonet along with various quartets and trios over the past 60+ years, his exceptionally vast and varied discography also includes an early unaccompanied saxophone solo album, several innovative albums of duets that span several jazz styles, and other collaborations which reads like a "who’s who” of the Jazz world. Lee Konitz is the only still active musician to have played all three past and present Birdland clubs in New York City.\nLike Gil Evans or Coleman Hawkins, Lee has always been open to playing with younger musicians and participating in exciting new musical projects (such as the Lee Konitz “New” Nonet or the Lee Konitz-Ohad Talmor String Project). A recent book about Lee Konitz (by Andy Hamilton) was published in 2007, and he also received the coveted NEA Jazz Masters Award back in 2009. Lee was voted "Alto Saxophonist of the Year" by Downbeat Magazine Critics Poll in 2010 and numerous times before that. In July 2013, he was awarded the "German Jazz Prize" for his life in music. \nTo this day, Konitz and his side mates continue to explore the old standards of his day, often heightened by his own unique melodic sense of line and structure. Whether performing in a duo setting with pianists Dan Tepfer or Florian Weber or fronting his long-standing quartet (with bassist Jeremy Stratton and drummer George Schuller added), Konitz is always keeping one foot in the tradition while the other leans heavily towards the vast unknown.
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Lee Konitz Biography
Lee Konitz (born October 13, 1927 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American jazz composer and saxophone player.
Konitz is sometimes regarded as the preeminent cool jazz saxophonist, because he performed and recorded with Claude Thornhill, Lennie Tristano (both often cited as important cool jazz proponents of the mid 1940s), and with Miles Davis' on his epochal Birth of the Cool, which gave the form its name.
Konitz has also been repeatedly noted as one of the few jazz saxophonists of the late 1940s and 1950s who did not seem imitative of the massively influential Charlie Parker.
In the early 1950s, Konitz recorded and toured with Stan Kenton's orchestra.
In 1961, he recorded Motion with Elvin Jones on drums and Sonny Dallas on bass. This spontaneous session, widely regarded as a classic in the cool genre, consisted entirely of standards. The loose trio format aptly featured Konitz's unorthodox phrasing and chromaticism.
In 1967, Konitz recorded The Lee Konitz Duets, a series of duets with various musicians. The duo configurations were often unusual for the period (saxophone and trombone, two saxophones). The recordings drew on very nearly the entire history of jazz, from a Louis Armstrong dixieland number with valve trombonist Marshall Brown to two completely free duos: one with a Duke Ellington associate, violinist Ray Nance, and one with guitarist Jim Hall.
Konitz has been quite prolific, recording dozens of albums as a band leader. He has also recorded or performed with Dave Brubeck, Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus, Gerry Mulligan, Elvin Jones and others.
Read MoreKonitz is sometimes regarded as the preeminent cool jazz saxophonist, because he performed and recorded with Claude Thornhill, Lennie Tristano (both often cited as important cool jazz proponents of the mid 1940s), and with Miles Davis' on his epochal Birth of the Cool, which gave the form its name.
Konitz has also been repeatedly noted as one of the few jazz saxophonists of the late 1940s and 1950s who did not seem imitative of the massively influential Charlie Parker.
In the early 1950s, Konitz recorded and toured with Stan Kenton's orchestra.
In 1961, he recorded Motion with Elvin Jones on drums and Sonny Dallas on bass. This spontaneous session, widely regarded as a classic in the cool genre, consisted entirely of standards. The loose trio format aptly featured Konitz's unorthodox phrasing and chromaticism.
In 1967, Konitz recorded The Lee Konitz Duets, a series of duets with various musicians. The duo configurations were often unusual for the period (saxophone and trombone, two saxophones). The recordings drew on very nearly the entire history of jazz, from a Louis Armstrong dixieland number with valve trombonist Marshall Brown to two completely free duos: one with a Duke Ellington associate, violinist Ray Nance, and one with guitarist Jim Hall.
Konitz has been quite prolific, recording dozens of albums as a band leader. He has also recorded or performed with Dave Brubeck, Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus, Gerry Mulligan, Elvin Jones and others.
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