LEE KONITZ - First Meeting, Live in London, Volume One
Whirlwind Records, WR 4638
Lee Konitz (alto and soprano saxes) Dan Tepfer (piano) Michael Janisch (bass) Jeff Williams (drums)
Recorded live on May 19th & 20th 2010 at the Pizza Express Jazz Club, Soho, London
Throughout a long career, Lee Konitz, 82 at the time of this recording, has doggedly pursued his distinctive, austere aesthetic to become acknowledged as one of the most original and compelling voices in jazz. Not always fashionable and too easily classified as one of the founding members of the `cool school` he has ploughed his own furrow in diverse musical settings rarely making any concession to passing fads. First and foremost an improviser adept at dissecting familiar themes and reassembling them in a way that makes us look at the music anew, in his latest recording he teams up with a group of younger but similarly inclined musical scientists for an exercise in spontaneous improvisation that harks back to his early experiences with Lennie Tristano in the late nineteen forties.
We are told than there was no rehearsal or pre-conceived plan just like `Intuition` and `Digression`, the recordings made with the Tristano alumni. What makes this set particularly remarkable is that the musicians were free to decide whether to participate of not and that it was recorded live in a nightclub, namely the Dean Street Pizza Express –hardly a musical laboratory. Konitz sticks to familiar themes that he has recorded many times over the years but not I believe out any nostalgic affection for them or easy familiarity because he tosses them away quickly without any lingering romanticism and sets about the business of re-defining them that is often contrary to expectations and making close attention mandatory – not really music for dining but the audience seem attentive and appreciative. Never one for familiar licks, bluesy phrasing or cheap emotional effects Konitz has become more of an aesthete with the passing of time concentrating on improvisational integrity at the expense of easily won recognition. He neither luxuriates in the melodies –mostly songbook standards – nor seeks tonal opulence as though these stylistic elements might deaden the listeners’ ear to his more serious intent. Consequently some of his deliberations can seem awkward and acerbic but they are never less than challenging and stimulating.
Likewise, Konitz has never been averse to placing himself in challenging situations whether it be the hermetic atmosphere of a Tristano master class, the bold as brass sound of the Kenton band, the stripped down setting of a bass’n drums combo as in his magnum opus `Motion` or pitted against another master improviser like Warne Marsh, he rarely finds himself outside his comfort zone and we can take some comfort in the fact that there are contemporary musicians to be found who are prepared to rise to his challenge, three of whom feature in this recording.
Dan Tepfer is a New York based Franco –American pianist who shares Konitz’s forensic approach to improvisation and can be heard listening very closely to the leader’s line of development and adding support by way of carefully wrought harmonics and fills. Janisch and Williams, both Americans domiciled in the UK achieve a similar rapport as well as demonstrating their own formidable instrumental prowess. On five of the eight tracks they play together as a quartet but Konitz and Tepfer perform as a duo in their pitiless vivisection of the standard `Body and Soul` and Konitz stays clear of a dense, oblique version of `Giant Steps` in which Tepfer demonstrates his powerful and highly original command of the keyboard.
If you believe that jazz musicians should always strive to have something original to say then delight in the fact that Lee Konitz is still doing it at an age when many relax into platitudinous ease and is still making records that add lustre to his distinguished and voluminous discography. Another disc of even freer more exploratory work by the quartet is promised but in the meantime there is plenty to get your teeth into here.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
Whirlwind Records, WR 4638
Lee Konitz (alto and soprano saxes) Dan Tepfer (piano) Michael Janisch (bass) Jeff Williams (drums)
Recorded live on May 19th & 20th 2010 at the Pizza Express Jazz Club, Soho, London
Throughout a long career, Lee Konitz, 82 at the time of this recording, has doggedly pursued his distinctive, austere aesthetic to become acknowledged as one of the most original and compelling voices in jazz. Not always fashionable and too easily classified as one of the founding members of the `cool school` he has ploughed his own furrow in diverse musical settings rarely making any concession to passing fads. First and foremost an improviser adept at dissecting familiar themes and reassembling them in a way that makes us look at the music anew, in his latest recording he teams up with a group of younger but similarly inclined musical scientists for an exercise in spontaneous improvisation that harks back to his early experiences with Lennie Tristano in the late nineteen forties.
We are told than there was no rehearsal or pre-conceived plan just like `Intuition` and `Digression`, the recordings made with the Tristano alumni. What makes this set particularly remarkable is that the musicians were free to decide whether to participate of not and that it was recorded live in a nightclub, namely the Dean Street Pizza Express –hardly a musical laboratory. Konitz sticks to familiar themes that he has recorded many times over the years but not I believe out any nostalgic affection for them or easy familiarity because he tosses them away quickly without any lingering romanticism and sets about the business of re-defining them that is often contrary to expectations and making close attention mandatory – not really music for dining but the audience seem attentive and appreciative. Never one for familiar licks, bluesy phrasing or cheap emotional effects Konitz has become more of an aesthete with the passing of time concentrating on improvisational integrity at the expense of easily won recognition. He neither luxuriates in the melodies –mostly songbook standards – nor seeks tonal opulence as though these stylistic elements might deaden the listeners’ ear to his more serious intent. Consequently some of his deliberations can seem awkward and acerbic but they are never less than challenging and stimulating.
Likewise, Konitz has never been averse to placing himself in challenging situations whether it be the hermetic atmosphere of a Tristano master class, the bold as brass sound of the Kenton band, the stripped down setting of a bass’n drums combo as in his magnum opus `Motion` or pitted against another master improviser like Warne Marsh, he rarely finds himself outside his comfort zone and we can take some comfort in the fact that there are contemporary musicians to be found who are prepared to rise to his challenge, three of whom feature in this recording.
Dan Tepfer is a New York based Franco –American pianist who shares Konitz’s forensic approach to improvisation and can be heard listening very closely to the leader’s line of development and adding support by way of carefully wrought harmonics and fills. Janisch and Williams, both Americans domiciled in the UK achieve a similar rapport as well as demonstrating their own formidable instrumental prowess. On five of the eight tracks they play together as a quartet but Konitz and Tepfer perform as a duo in their pitiless vivisection of the standard `Body and Soul` and Konitz stays clear of a dense, oblique version of `Giant Steps` in which Tepfer demonstrates his powerful and highly original command of the keyboard.
If you believe that jazz musicians should always strive to have something original to say then delight in the fact that Lee Konitz is still doing it at an age when many relax into platitudinous ease and is still making records that add lustre to his distinguished and voluminous discography. Another disc of even freer more exploratory work by the quartet is promised but in the meantime there is plenty to get your teeth into here.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon