As part of the cool-jazz school, Konitz adored purity of tone and sensitive ballads, but he could also motor through knotty riffs while keeping textures balanced and feeling easy. His alto merges beautifully with Warne Marsh's tenor on a 1949 performance of Lennie Tristano's riff rollercoaster “Wow”, and he brings a similar energy to Miles Davis' Birth of the Cool sessions, especially on “Israel”.