Thank You!

so that’s 3 of us, and let me encourage others: it’s the least us regulars can do!

but i actually figured i’d seize this moment to say something about the great lee konitz, who is featured (with haden-motian-mehldau in what may be the greatest all caucasian small jazz ensemble ever) on live at birdland, because i came late to konitz (and can spare others that sad delay).

i had 3 problems with konitz, in retrospect all of them foolish. first, i overly associated him with the lennie tristano school, which i misunderstood and underrated anyhow. second, konitz has always been a horn for hire and lacking a specific group with which he’s associated that anchored his career. and third, he tends to play the same standards, and especially when i was new to jazz, i overly privileged writing your own tunes rather than selecting the best of the american song book.

in reality, there were only two relevant matters about konitz: first, he was a true inheritor of lester young, dedicated to melody in the deepest sense of the term, and second, he really has only own comparable in the have saxophone will travel category, and that’s sonny rollins – someone who made great recordings in his 20s and every decade up to and including his 80s.

the historic critic’s choice for konitz was motion in which he teams with elvin jones on drums (and sonny dallas on bass, alto-bass-drums being konitz’ favorite format) but my own recommendation for first digging into konitz is his 2001 reinvestigation of the tristano style, parallels with exceptional work by peter bernstein on guitar (in lieu of piano) and joined, on several tracks, by the fantastic younger tenor player, mark turner.

and if you like those 2, it’s the easiest thing in the world to come up with 25 more konitz albums to recommend (he’s recorded well over 100 albums), including the “live at birdland” that scott received.