Lee Konitz
Lee Konitz ( born October 13, 1927 in Chicago, Illinois ) is an alto saxophonist of modern jazz. On the alto saxophone he placed at the end of the 1940s the only original contribution is in addition to Charlie Parker and at the same time, starting with his first recording of Subconscious -Lee " the most important new influence after this". In his motivic work, the solo improvisation reached Martin Kunzler, according to " an aesthetic and thematic climax. " With its linear game attitude of the next Lennie Tristano "most important cool- Innovator" musicians such as Paul Desmond or Bill Evans coined as Hans Koller, Albert Mangelsdorff and eventually even avant-gardists such as Anthony Braxton.
Life and work
Konitz 1938 bought a clarinet and a lower self- direction method, then in 1939 a tenor saxophone. He worked as an alto saxophonist with Teddy Powell and Jerry Wald, before the Roosevelt attended college two years. His first recordings made Konitz 1947 and 1948 with Claude Thornhill.
At age 21, he was a member of the famous Miles Davis / Gil Evans Nonet, which was involved in the panel sessions of Birth of the Cool in New York. These recordings ( 1949-50 ) are one of the origins of cool jazz. Membership in this band drew from him because he was accepted as White in this band, even though there was plenty of unemployed African-American alto saxophonist at that time. At the same time he worked with pianist Lennie Tristano and tenor saxophonist Warne Marsh and took in 1949 with them and Billy Bauer first free improvisations (particularly "Intuition " and " Digression " on Cross Currents ).
From the early 1950s he moved away from the cool jazz "His wide sweeping eighth chains follow primary motivic development opportunities and ideals of the internal symmetry. " Konitz worked in 1951 in Sweden ( Sax of a Kind, Americans in Sweden); In 1952, he played in Canada with Tristano, then in Stan Kenton's band from 1952 to 1954; as a soloist, he has appeared on New Concepts of Artistry in Rhythm 1952. 1953 made recordings with Gerry Mulligan. In 1954/55 he led in New York and Boston own groups. In the summer of 1955 he appeared with Tristano in a New York restaurant, the recordings were released under the title Lennie Tristano on Atlantic. In January 1956 he went on a European tour with Hans Koller, Lars Gullin and Zoot Sims. Despite his artistic success, he was then repeatedly civic activities by, in order to maintain the artistic freedom.
Konitz, who won numerous polls in the fifties, early sixties focused for a while on the job as a teacher in California. In 1964 he joined again with Tristano. In 1965, he was a highly regarded solo on Donna Lee at the center of a documented on disk Parker Memorial Concert at Carnegie Hall. He resumed with Mulligan and Bill Evans ( Revelation ). He also played 1965/66 and 1968/69 with different, even European musicians at European festivals, including the Berlin Jazz Festival. During this time he was living with friends in Lörrach.
In the late 1960s it moved Konitz back to teaching. After several trips to Europe, festival appearances, including in Japan ( 1972), New York (1973 ), Berlin ( 1973) and Antibes (1974) and a few record releases, he joined until the mid- 1970s again regularly in appearance. From 1975 to 1983 he headed - first in New York Stryker 's Club - a nonet, with which in 1979 he also visited Europe (Live at Laren ), where he also appeared with Karl Berger Woodstock ensemble. In 1980 he toured with the orchestra of Gil Evans. As a teacher, had Lee Konitz 1979/80 frequently in Canada. Also in the 1980s, he remained an international presence despite increased teaching at colleges, New York University and later in Philadelphia.
Konitz recorded more than 150 albums as a leader and as a sideman. From the 1960s he played increasingly in Europe club concerts in small formations, often accompanied only by a pianist. In 1972 he toured with Charles Mingus and Friends in Concert; In 1974, he played one of today's notable solo recording " Lone Lee" one. A great success was the reunion with Warne Marsh end of 1975. Between 1980 and today, he tours regularly in jazz clubs in Europe and is often used in studios with young formations (eg in Franz Koglmann We Thought About Duke or the trio Minsarah to Florian Weber), but also pursued avant-garde projects with advanced musicians like Andrew Hill, Attila Zoller, Derek Bailey or the Theo Jörgensmann Quartet. Konitz, who then temporarily lived in Cologne, appears open to music of Debussy, Satie and Bach; together with a string quartet and Ohad Talmor he went with the Lee Konitz String Project on tour and improvised over the music of the French Impressionists. In November 2000, Konitz played with the Brandenburg State Orchestra in two concerts in Frankfurt ( Oder) and Potsdam the written for him concert prism of Günter Buhles.
Scale setting end Duoaufnahmen attracted like a red thread through his life's work: starting with Billy Bauer ( Rebecca, 1950) followed the collaboration with musicians such as guitarist Jim Hall, trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff and Jiggs Whigham, tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson and pianist Frank Wunsch. The LPs and CDs from Konitz published by major labels such as Universal, often with independent labels such as Philology in Italy ( Duoeinspielung with Franco D'Andrea ), navel, Pirouet and Enja in Germany, in France or NATO HatHut Records in Switzerland.
Awards and prizes
In 1992 he was awarded the highly doped Jazzpar Prize. 1998 his album Motion ( 1961) was included in the list Wire The Wire 's " 100 Records That Set the World on Fire (While No One Was Listening ) ". In 2009 he received the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship, the most prestigious award for American jazz musicians. 2013, the German Jazz Trophy he was awarded.
Disco Graphical instructions ( selection)
- Lee Konitz With Warne Marsh (Atlantic, Storyville, 1955)
- Motion ( Verve, 1961 with Elvin Jones and Sonny Dallas )
- Lee Konitz / Albert Mangelsdorff Art Of The Duo ( Enja, 1983)
- Lee Konitz / Frank Wunsch Into it ( West Wind, 1995)
- Lee Konitz & The Axis String Quartet Play French Impressionist Music ( Palmetto, 2000)
- Lee Konitz / Ohad Talmor / Spring String Quartet Inventions ( Omnitone, 2004)
- Walter Lang / Lee Konitz Ashiya ( Pirouet, 2007)
- Lennie Tristano Cross Currents
- Miles Davis Birth of the Cool ( Capitol )
- Gerry Mulligan Rebirth of the Cool ( grp )
- Kenny Wheeler Angel Song (ECM )