Articles

Daily articles carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. Read our popular and future articles.

RADIO May 21, 2020

Lee Konitz Tribute and New Releases

On this edition a celebration of the music of jazz giant Lee Konitz together with some new releases: Denman Maroney brings an inventive and creative approach to the piano with his new album. Exploring different aspects of the keyboard with his “hyperpiano" he delivers a fresh and exciting sound. JUNO-nominated Canadian jazz quartet, Peripheral Vision release a new double album with producer Jean Martin creating a bigger sound for the record, adding layers of overdubs and ...

EXTENDED ANALYSIS April 28, 2020

Live in Schauburg, Bremen, Germany, 1983

By Jakob Baekgaard

The history of jazz is not only a story of great individuals, but also a narrative of partnerships that have shaped the development of the music. Just think of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines and Al Cohn and Zoot Sims. There's also a proud tradition of combining saxophone and piano with beautiful results. Art Pepper lifted his playing in the company of George Cables and Kenny Barron elevated the late style of Stan Getz.

ALBUM REVIEW June 19, 2018

Lee Konitz: Prisma

By Ian Patterson

Though Lee Konitz has played in a wide variety of settings and styles since his first professional engagement with Teddy Powell in 1945, recordings with full-blown orchestras have been few and far between. Recorded in Frankfurt in 2000, with the Brandenburg State Orchestra conducted by Christoph Campestrini, Prisma captures Konitz interpreting Gunter Buhles' concerto for alto saxophone and orchestra. Composed in four-parts, as opposed to the concerto's more traditional three-part format, Buhles's working title for the project--composed especially for Konitz--was ...

ALBUM REVIEW May 22, 2018

Lee Konitz: Frescalalto

By Ian Patterson

For over seven decades, since his participation in Miles Davis's 1949-1950 Birth of the Cool sessions, Lee Konitz has carved out a tireless path as one of jazz's most illuminating improvisers. Recorded at the tail end of 2015, when he was already 87 years old, Frescalalto sees Konitz in a straight-ahead session effectively marshalled by the trio of Kenny Barron, Peter Washington and Kenny Washington, who provide bags of rhythmic momentum. Standards and Konitz originals make for familiar fare, with ...

LIVE REVIEW February 13, 2018

Lee Konitz 90th Birthday Celebration at Regatta Bar

By Steve Provizer

Lee Konitz Regatta Bar 90th Birthday Celebration Boston, MA January 26, 2018 Not many jazz musicians active in the 1940's are still around, never mind on the road, gigging. Last Friday at the Regatta Bar one of these rare jazz birds, alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, came through town, celebrating his 90th birthday. Konitz was an early experimenter with Lennie Tristano, an important member of Miles Davis' Birth of the Cool ...

CATCHING UP WITH April 23, 2017

Cathing up with Lee Konitz

By Lazaro Vega

This interview was first published at All About Jazz in May 1999 and is part of our ongoing effort to archive pre-database material. The Lee Konitz Trio, Mother's Day, May 9th At 4 P.M. In The 165 Seat Urban Institute For Contemporary Arts Theater, 41 Sheldon Blvd. Ne, Grand Rapids, Mi. The Alto Saxophone Master With Bassist Jeff Halsey Of Bowling Green University And Drummer Pete Siers Of Ann Arbor. Tickets Are $15. All About Jazz: ...

EXTENDED ANALYSIS December 29, 2012

Lee Konitz: Four Classic Albums

By David Rickert

Besides being one of the few altoists that emerged in the 1950s that doesn't sound like Charlie Parker, Lee Konitz was a true musical adventurer whose explorations in free jazz, electronic instruments, and just all around anything goes sessions resulted in some of the most exciting music that came out of the fifties and beyond. His playing, which is marked by a detachment and intellectualism that can sound rehearsed, isn't for everyone, but there's no doubt that Konitz has, and ...