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Lee Konitz (1927-2020)

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Lee Konitz, an alto saxophonist who helped develop an East Coast jazz style in the late 1940s that writers labeled “cool jazz" and went on to establish a sound in Stan Kenton's early 1950s orchestra while exploring free jazz in small groups throughout his career, died on April 15. He was 92.

Lee's cool jazz was marked by a drier sound and an absence of the blues. As Lee mentioned to me over a 2013 breakfast during an interview for a Wall Street Journal article (go here), “The blues never connected with me. I knew and loved Charlie Parker and copied his bebop solos like everyone else. But I didn't want to sound like him. So I used almost no vibrato and played mostly in the higher register. That's the heart of my sound."

On that summer morning in August, Lee and I met at Barney Greengrass, a smoked-fish emporium that dates back to 1929 on Amsterdam Avenue. The breakfast hot-spot was Lee's choice. “What do you mean no onion on the sandwich," Lee quietly said to me when we were ordering. “There's no point without it." I relented and we both ordered the same thing—nova on a toasted poppy bagel with a slice of white onion with creamed cheese on the side along with a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice.

For the next hour, we talked about Lennie Tristano, Claude Thornhill, Miles Davis's “Birth of the Cool" band, Stan Kenton, West Coast jazz and more. Lee was soft-spoken but sharply witty. Interestingly, he was cool in temperament, a virtual reflection of his saxophone's sound. Lee struck me as someone who was disinterested in the everyday world. Instead, he was itching to get back to his saxophone and the language of music and pure expression.

Here are 10 of my favorite tracks that capture Lee's sound and feel:

Here's Lee's first recording, in the Claude Thornhill band playing Gil Evans's arrangement of Anthropology in 1947. Listen for Lee's dry alto saxophone solo...



Here's Lee in the Miles Davis Nonet recording Gerry Mulligan's arrangement of George Wallington's Godchild in 1949...



Here's Lee in the Lennie Tristano Sextet recording the spectacular Wow in 1949...



Here's the Lee Konitz Quintet recording Palo Alto in 1950 with Sal Mosca on piano...



Here's Lee and Miles Davis recording Ezz-Thetic in 1951, with Sal Mosca (p), Billy Bauer (g), Arnold Fishkin (b) and Max Roach (d)...



Here's Extrasensory Perception in 1952 with Lee and Charles Mingus, an early example of free jazz...



Here's Lee with a solo on Gerry Mulligan's Young Blood from Stan Kenton's New Concepts of Artistry in Rhythm in 1952...



Here's Lee with tenor saxophonist Warne Marsh recording Two Not One in 1955...



Here's Lee with Allen Eager and Zoot Sims (as,ts), Al Cohn (bar,ts), Gerry Mulligan (bar), Freddie Green (g), Henry Grimes (b) and Dave Bailey (d) recording Venus De Milo, arranged by Bill Holman in 1957 from The Gerry Mulligan Songbook Vol. 1...



And here's Lee and Bill Evans on How Deep Is the Ocean and Beautiful Love in Denmark in 1965 with Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen (b) and Alan Dawson (d)...

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This story appears courtesy of JazzWax by Marc Myers.
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