Lee Konitz

Lee Konitz – Tenorlee (Remastered) (1978/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 46:59 minutes | 477 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Candid

Tenorlee is an album by American jazz saxophonist Lee Konitz, released on the Choice label in 1978 and rereleased by Candid in 1996, with two bonus tracks.

(more…)

Lee Konitz – Prisma (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 33:59 minutes | 364 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © QFTF

At age 90 Lee Konitz is truly a living legend of Jazz. At an age when most people are sitting back enjoying the view from God’s waiting room, Konitz is still active touring the world. Later this month Lee will be back in Europe for a number of concerts in the UK, Germany, Spain and France. Joining Lee on the tour will be German pianist Florian Weber together with long term Konitz compatriots, New York based bassist Jeremy Stratton And drummer George Schuller.

(more…)

Lee Konitz – Old Songs New (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 49:06 minutes | 974 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sunnyside

True fans know that Lee Konitz is one of the last giants in the history of jazz. A REAL giant who has always taken the genre in new directions, shaking up cool jazz just as easily as the free scene… At the age of 92, the saxophonist from Chicago still has that unique alto sound that offered an alternative to the Parker revolution a long, long time ago. For the past thirty years, the saxophonist, composer and arranger Ohad Talmor has been a close friend of Konitz. Here, the two men resurrect the famous Lee Konitz Nonet, an ensemble mixing brass, wind, percussion and strings. The nonet’s origins lie in Lee Konitz’s early work for Miles Davis’ legendary album Birth of the Cool. With Old Songs New, released in November 2019, Talmor wanted to pay tribute to the sound of the 50s radio orchestras that Lee Konitz so loved. He also wanted the saxophonist to record rare and even unreleased pieces from his repertoire, particularly the works popularized by Frank Sinatra (In the Wee Small Hours), a cornerstone of Konitz’s lyrical playing. Above all, the Lee Konitz Nonet provides the perfect setting to bring the leader’s phrasing to the fore, designed to produce a deeper, darker atmosphere that counterbalances the alto sax’s bright sound. – Marc Zisman

(more…)

Lee Konitz – Live at the Berlin Jazz Days 1980 (1982/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 48:53 minutes | 892 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © MPS

A duo album of the highest caliber! US Alto saxophonist Lee Konitz’s career encompasses the beginnings of bebop, the Birth of the Cool, mainstream as well as the Avant-garde. Konitz has recorded with virtually every major modern jazz figure of the last 60 years, including Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Gil Evans, and Brad Mehldau. French pianist Martial Solal has been a major musical voice since the 1950’s. The two have had a rich musical relationship since the 1960’s. This live 1980 album was conceived in part as a “Lennie Tristano Memorial”. Lee’s studies and playing experience with the iconoclastic pianist left an indelible imprint on the saxophonist’s concept, and Solal is the perfect partner for the project. A free-wheeling interpretation of the standard Invitation is followed by No. 317 East 32nd Street Tristano’s Manhattan address. Martial and Lee play the piece as if they were at one of Lennie’s open-ended sessions, as they experiment with the musical possibilities. The two take a deep bow to the master in a heart-felt A Ballad for Lennie,and Improvisation No.53 has Lee and Martial in an inspired duo hovering around the changes to All the Things You Are. It’s everything but Just A Blues, as the two explore by-tonal pathways. They go on to scope out Star Eyes in a spacey rendition. Noblesse Oblige sounds suspiciously like Cherokee, the composition Charlie Parker morphed into a defining jazz standard. The two play it with the appropriate virtuosic passion. Konitz’s Subconscious-Lee is a bop era classic that transcends the period – an example of Tristano’s innovative influence. An exhilarating exploratory session by two masters of the music.

(more…)

Lee Konitz – It’s You (1996)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 51:33 minutes | 529 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © SteepleChase

Altoist Lee Konitz has recorded in many different types of settings through the years. This sparse outing matches Konitz in a pianoless trio with bassist Ron McClure and drummer Billy Hart. The focus is mostly on Konitz, and he is in top form, playing inventively and thoughtfully on four originals (most of which have chord changes based on standards), a piece by McClure, and the ballad “Angel Eyes.” This is a melodic and cool-toned bop session that finds Lee Konitz often sounding as if he is thinking aloud.

(more…)

Lee Konitz – Inside Hi-Fi (1956/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 41:09 minutes | 811 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla

Inside Hi-Fi is an album by American jazz saxophonist Lee Konitz which was released on the Atlantic label in 1956. The album includes Konitz’s first recorded performance on tenor saxophone.

(more…)

Lee Konitz – Frescalalto (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 50:31 minutes | 980 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Impulse!

Throughout his nearly 70-year career, Konitz himself has been highly influential in the way of playing of several musicians. “Frescalalto” marks his debut on Impulse Records and features the acclaimed pianist Kenny Barron, and a tight bass-drums engine composed of Peter Washington and Kenny Washington (no family ties, but natural musical rapport). For this session, Konitz selected three originals and five standards, which were dressed with inventive new outfits.

(more…)

Lee Konitz – All That Jazz, Vol. 83: Lee Konitz & Friends (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 51:13 minutes | 326 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Jube Legends

Leon Konitz (October 13, 1927 – April 15, 2020) was an American composer and alto saxophonist.

He performed successfully in a wide range of jazz styles, including bebop, cool jazz, and avant-garde jazz. Konitz’s association with the cool jazz movement of the 1940s and 1950s includes participation in Miles Davis’s Birth of the Cool sessions and his work with pianist Lennie Tristano. He was one of relatively few alto saxophonists of this era to retain a distinctive style, when Charlie Parker exerted a massive influence. Like other students of Tristano, Konitz improvised long, melodic lines with the rhythmic interest coming from odd accents, or odd note groupings suggestive of the imposition of one time signature over another. Other saxophonists were strongly influenced by Konitz, such as Paul Desmond and Art Pepper.

He died during the COVID-19 pandemic due to complications brought on by the disease.
(more…)

Lee Konitz – All that Jazz, Vol. 125: Bopping Sax – Lee Konitz & Friends in Studio and on Stage (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:27:53 minutes | 525 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Jube Legends

(more…)