LEE KONITZ

www.cassgb.org12 Clarinet & Saxophone, Summer 2020

PHOTO: SCHORLE

Considered by many players and critics as an equal of Charlie Parker in terms of influence, Lee Konitz became a victim of the Covid-19 viral epidemic on 15 April after more than 70 years of professional activity as a modern jazz alto saxophonist.

Lee’s first professional job was in 1945 with Teddy Powell’s band as a replacement for Charlie Ventura. Between 1945 and 1947 he worked on-and-off with Jerry Wald, and during the late 40s he conducted his initial sessions with Lennie Tristano in New York City. In 1947, aged just 20, his first improvised and documented solos were with the then-modernistic Claude Thornhill Band (‘Thrivin on a Riff’/‘Yardbird Suite’ – the latter a Gil Evans arrangement) where he met future disciples of the up-coming ‘cool school’: Gerry Mulligan (baritone/composer) and Gil. Lee went on to stamp his mark on the careers of Miles Davis, Tristano, Stan Kenton, the entire ‘west coast movement’ and much else.

But we’re moving a little ahead of things. Lee (Leon) was the third of three brothers, born in Chicago on 13 October 1927 to essentially non-musical Jewish parents of Austrian and Russian descent. His first instrument, aged 11, was the clarinet; Gary Giddins (in his masterful tome Weather Bird, Oxford University Press, 2004) advises that this was taught by a member of the Chicago Symphony – possibly a Lou Honig. Aged 12 he dropped the clarinet in favour of tenor saxophone under teacher Santy Runyon, but by the mid-40s he settled principally on the alto with occasional excursions on soprano and one remarkable recorded episode on tenor sax (‘Tenorlee’ from 1978).

LEE KONITZ: 1927-2020

Kenneth Morris pays tribute to a most influential master saxophonist

Concert of LeeKonitz and FlorianWeber in the ‘RedSaloon’ of the Deutschordensschloss Bad Mergentheim.

LEE KONITZ

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With both the Discogs and Wikipedia discographies containing many hundreds of items, I am not aware of any up-to-date listing of Lee’s available back-catalogue. So, from this point on, quoted recordings should all be available from Amazon, YouTube or on streaming sites.

1948-49 found Lee pretty busy – a) working with Miles Davis’s Nonet, initially and briefly assembled purely for a September 1948 gig; b) recording his first set as a leader (now the album Subconscious-Lee); and c) embracing the disciplines and stylistic

mannerisms of Lennie Tristano, a relationship that went back to 1943 and continued until 1964. The Davis Nonet came about because Miles loved the Mulligan/Evans items played by Claude Thornhill. The now-famous Nonet Birth of the Cool recordings took place later in 1949-50.

Subconscious-Lee (January 1949 to April 1950) was a debut for both Lee as a leader and Prestige as a record company. Its title track is a jazz ‘contrafact’ (borrowed changes) of Cole Porter’s ‘What is this thing called Love?’. The current CD version is available on Original Jazz Classics. Lee’s initial compatriots for Subconscious-Lee were Warne Marsh (tenor sax), Sal Mosca or Lennie Tristano (piano), Billy Bauer (guitar), Arnold Fishkind (bass) and various drummers. Selected tracks appeared on shellac 78 RPM discs in the UK around 1951-52, and I can vividly remember my inability (aged 17) to copy any of Lee’s lines on my banged-up ex-junk-shop soprano, on account of his (and Warne’s) remarkable ability to deliver long phrases of improvisation – combining all the changes within (usually) much less than an octave at great speed. I note that several critics have commented that much of Lee’s early-50s playing contains elements of jazz development that become commonplace 10 to 15 years later from Coltrane, Dolphy and Coleman.

Thirty-five years after the music was created, Verve released a two-CD set: Lee Konitz, Live at the Half Note with Warne, Bill Evans (piano), Jimmy Garrison (bass) and Paul Motion (drums). This March 1959 session, from the eponymous NYC club, represents some of the best examples of the Tristano-Konitz genre.

Collaborations with Lennie Tristano, a blind pianist and founder of the eclectic ‘Tristano school’ in NYC, ultimately became too insular and constricting for Lee. Nevertheless, he maintained his Warne Marsh links when recording a two-CD set, Live at the Club Montmartre in Denmark, as late as December 1975. These Danish albums were issued by Storyville Records; the piano-less ‘Part Two’ is the more interesting. Spanning a period from 1954 to 61 (and overlapping Lee’s ‘Kenton’ period, discussed below) Real

Gone Jazz’s re-issue Lee Konitz – Seven Classic Albums manages to deliver five sessions traceable in the fourth edition of my All Music Guide to Jazz. The All Music star ratings of these sessions are: Jazz at Storyville (1954) five stars; Konitz (1954) five stars; Inside Hi Fi (1956) four stars; Tranquillity (1957) four stars; and Motion (1961) four stars. As Scott Yanow, a principal All Music critic, opines: ‘Most of the Konitz-Marsh combo material is worth auditioning.’

Enlightenment Records issued another four-CD set, entitled Lee Konitz – the Verve Albums Collection, containing eight originals. Three (Inside Hi Fi, Tranquillity and Motion) are the same as the Real Gone Jazz set, but five are rarer re-issues: Lee Konitz with Warne Marsh (1955, four stars); Very Cool; An Image – Lee Konitz with Strings (1958, three stars); Lee Konitz Meets Jimmy Giuffre (1951-59, five stars); and You and Lee (1959, three stars). Some of these sessions are discussed below as I attempt to maintain a roughly chronological listing of Lee’s activities.

As a big-band fan, my favourite phase of Lee’s long career is his (all too short?) period with Stan Kenton in the early 50s. From my reference books I find that Lee appears to have filled the lead/solo alto chair between the tenures of Art Pepper and either Charlie Mariano or Lennie Niehaus. Stan and Lee are in many ways extraordinarily matched: both put their continuous exploration of and experimentation with new musical pastures ahead of (most) commercial constraints; both were happy to work with any quality of up-and-coming new instrumental and arranging talent; and both were aware of the importance of the US ‘college campus’ market.

For some reason (Art’s indisposition?) Lee appeared in the Kenton sax line-up along with Vinnie Dean, Richie Kamuca,

Bill Holman and Bob Gioga in September 1952 for the recording of New Concepts of Artistry in Rhythm. Three tracks of this Pete Welding re-issue on Capitol Jazz Records featured Lee – ‘23°N — 82°W’, ‘My Lady’ and ‘Improvisation’ – all superb. All Music lists six further Kenton albums on which Lee features, but none with any meaningful quantity of his talent. They are: Portraits on Standards, Spotlight on Lee Konitz (unfortunately just a selection of radio broadcasts mixed with five vocal tracks), Kenton Showcase, The Definitive Kenton and The European Tour – 1953. The last two, both rated five stars, are originally from Artistry Records and are worth tracking down for devotees.

Birth of the Cool from the Miles Davis Nonet was made up of trumpet, trombone, French Horn, tuba, alto sax (Lee), baritone sax (Gerry Mulligan), piano, bass and drums. It was recorded in

Stan Kenton and Lee are in many ways extraordinarily matched: both put their continuous exploration of and experimentation with new musical pastures ahead of (most) commercial constraints

Several critics have commented that much of Lee’s early-50s playing contains elements of jazz development that become commonplace 10 to 15 years later from Coltrane, Dolphy and Coleman

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Konitz playing in Aarhus, Denmark, 2014

Konitz at Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society, California, 1985

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PHOTO: BHREINN GUDLAUGSSON

LEE KONITZ

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bits during January and April 1949 and March 1950. Remaining un-released as a 12” LP until 1957, it is such a vital piece of jazz history – in which Lee played an important part – that it is worth supplying a longer quote from Gary Giddins:

Birth of the Cool is modern jazz’s most enduring chimera. The Nonet had little commercial success in performance or on (initial shellac) records, until the sessions were released in LP format with that famous obstetrical title, thereafter achieving immediate status as a classic and a watershed. Yet although the recordings represented a breakthrough for most of the participants, it is not at all clear what they gave birth to, beyond the reputations of those concerned. [The participants] went off in very different directions, and though some would be lured again by the premises behind a nonet or tentet, the (ultimate) shape of cool jazz had an entirely different countenance, symbolised by two foursomes – Mulligan’s piano-less quartet in the West and Lewis’s MJQ [Modern Jazz Quartet] in the East. No, the fascination with the nonet recordings resides in the special radiance of those arrangements and solo performances, often imitated but never matched.

Indeed, it could be argued that Lee and Gerry’s saxophone ‘sounds’, coupled with the arrangers’

and soloists’ ‘radiance’ on Birth of the Cool, contributed significantly to the style of the emerging ‘cool school’ – although it must also be said that others, such as Stan Getz and Paul Desmond, bolstered the movement. CASSGB president Richard Ingham, in his ‘Jazz and the Saxophone’ chapter in the 1998 Cambridge Companion to the Saxophone, makes some pertinent comments:

Lee Konitz was the first alto player apart from Sonny Stitt to emerge from behind the enormous presence of Charlie Parker. Undeniably influenced by ‘Bird’, he nonetheless immediately made his presence felt with a clear, vibrato-less sound, full in the classical sense, yet with a lightness which seemed to ride on top of an ensemble, outlining gentle contours. The complexity was there, but he was out to please and delight, rather than tease and provoke – he was Matisse to Parker’s Picasso.

The Nonet 12” LP album was given its ‘Birth’ title by Pete Rugolo, then a Capitol Records A&R executive. Mulligan arranged four of the tracks (‘Godchild’, ‘Venus De Milo’, ‘Rocker’ and ‘Darn that Dream’). Pianist John Lewis arranged ‘Move’, ‘Budo’ and ‘Rouge’, while the composer/trumpeter Johnny Carisi arranged ‘Israel’, Miles arranged ‘Deception’, and Gil Evans orchestrated ‘Boplicity’. Gerry himself described the audience reaction, at least

in the east of the US, as ‘favourable to the creative audacity of the musicians involved’. This is an apt comment and relevant to Lee’s own stated aim: ‘Jazz’s imperative is to “make it new”’.

From the mid-50s to 2018 Lee worked the world with many different musical associates, from small experimental groups and regular pals to other famous, mainly jazz, musicians – all the while embracing bop, free jazz or avant-garde with his own musical mannerisms in search of ‘a perfect performance’. By this I believe he meant a piece of improvisation/instant composition that was acceptable to him. The literature seems to indicate that he was intensely critical of his own work. During the whole of his

career, his sound and style have maintained an individuality with no attempt to emulate anyone else, including Charlie Parker, and absolutely no competitive activity with ‘Bird’. Indeed, the two altoists are known to have been great friends.

Wikipedia’s Konitz discography, covering 1949 to 2018, lists Lee as ‘leader/co-leader’ on 150 record sessions, plus ‘sideman’ roles on a further

60. This squares off reasonably well with the Discogs’ 280 odd listings. Using the aforementioned (US) All Music and the (UK) Penguin Jazz Guide (Cook/Morton’s ninth edition) I have selected, hopefully, the best of the bunch for this essay. Morton advises that Lee spent what should have been his most productive years more or less ‘in limbo’ – teaching, unrecognised by critics and unrecorded by all but small European labels.

A number of Konitz leader/co-leader albums, already listed above, are rated five stars or equivalent by both catalogues.

During the whole of his career, his sound and style have maintained an individuality with no attempt to emulate anyone else, including Charlie Parker

They are: Subconscious-Lee, Lee Konitz with Warne Marsh, Motion, Konitz Meets Mulligan and Konitz Meets Jimmy Giuffre. The 1961 Motion album is, at this point in time, worthy of detailed comment – as I hope will become clear. It is recorded by an unusual trio combination: alto sax, bass and drums. Re-released in 1990 with the original five tracks (‘I Remember You’, ‘All of Me’, ‘Foolin Myself’, ‘You’d be so Nice to Come Home To’ and ‘I’ll Remember April’) the artists are Lee, Sonny Dallas (bass) and Elvin Jones (drums). As already stated, audio versions are available in both the Real Gone Jazz and Enlightenment box sets.

But a more pertinent legacy was uploaded just a day after Lee’s passing by a regular contributor to YouTube, a Colin Gordon. He posted a high-quality four-minute-27-second audio-visual version of ‘I Remember You’ – carrying not a video of the trio in action but a treble-clef transcription of all six choruses (including chord symbols) of Lee’s performance, synced to the sound. Brilliant! Lee’s playing is astonishing – pure tone, fluent articulation and a mesmerising grasp of the harmonic sequence from which he extracts an extraordinarily complex but logical improvisation without repetition. All those years ago listening to the very first Konitz shellacs… What would I have paid for this sort of facility? Clearly it is of great value to students. Just go to YouTube and enter ‘Lee Konitz’ – you will be rewarded with a long list of clips including more than is mentioned above and below.

It is not surprising that All Music carries more examples of Lee’s recording activity, as the artists and record companies involved are mainly American. With Lee as a leader/co-leader, I can recommend the following albums: The Lee Konitz Duets, with various other instruments (1967, Milestones, five stars);

Peacemeal, a quintet with a most interesting set of track origins (1969, Milestones, five stars); I Concentrate on You (1974, SteepleChase, four stars); Lone-Lee, an unaccompanied disc (1974, SteepleChase, four stars); Yes, Yes, Nonet, a reprise of the Davis ‘mini-band’ approach with Lee on alto and soprano (1979, SteepleChase, five stars); and Alone Together, with Charlie Haden on bass and Brad Mehldau on piano (1996, Blue Note, five stars).

As a sideman, Konitz is even harder to track down. He’s clearly on Milestones, Miles Davis’s four-star 1957 album for Columbia, and two of Lennie Tristano’s Capitol discs, 1949’s Crosscurrents and 1956’s Intuition. He also turns up on Gerry Mulligan’s 1957 Songbook, a Blue Note confection. As I write this piece in late April, Amazon has a good mixture of Lee’s work on CD, some vinyl and some MP3s.

Perhaps Lee’s favourite format was the duet which, over the years, he delivered with many different instruments: double bass, guitar, trombone, vibraphone and saxophone, plus many more with pianists of distinction such as Martial Solal, Michel Petrucciani, Kenny Werner, Gary Versace, Andrew Hill and, most recently, Dan Tepfer. Lee was named a Jazz Master by the US National Endowment for the Arts in 2009 – an accolade informally recognised by the worldwide jazz community many years earlier. n

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Lee spent what should have been his most productive years more or less ‘in limbo’ – teaching, unrecognised by critics and unrecorded by all but small European labels