Lee Konitz

One of the most original and distinctive musicians in jazz history, alto saxophonist Lee Konitz made his mark through a subtle approach to bebop, opting for a dry, upper register sound that he applied to harmony-based improvisation. Despite the surface calm of the music, Konitz was a fearless collaborator throughout his long career. Born in Chicago in 1927, he got his first break two decades later when he joined the proto-cool jazz orchestra of Claude Thornhill, but it was his devotion to the music and ideas of pianist and composer Lennie Tristano soon thereafter that exerted the greatest impact on his music, forging a restrained sound that cooled the fiery acrobatics of Charlie Parker without diminishing its harmonic sophistication. Konitz was a key part of the Miles Davis Nonet, who cut the music on the classic album Birth of the Cool, recorded in 1949 and 1950. He began to prolifically record his own albums in the early 1950s, working closely with Gerry Mulligan and Warne Marsh. In the 1960s he performed with more exploratory figures, including drummer Elvin Jones on the 1961 record Motion, firmly establishing himself as the musician’s musician. Konitz toured and recorded steadily, mentoring younger musicians like pianist Dan Tepfer, right up to his death in 2020.