Lee Konitz Quartet

b. 13 Oct 1927, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Konitz started on clarinet, learning in the traditional form, later on switching to alto saxophone. Within the mid-late 40s he performed in the rings of Jerry Wald and Claude Thornhill, made an appearance on jazz times with Kilometers Davis and was concurrently learning with Lennie Tristano, with whom he also documented. In the first 50s he worked well for some time with Stan Kenton and even though he remaining the music group prior to the end of 1953, he previously founded his name and a global reputation. From your mid-50s onwards Konitz generally led his personal rings, recording and taking part in publicly, and produced a brief come back visit to use Tristano. He also became involved with teaching. Through the pursuing years Konitz’s desire for teaching created and quickly he was operating treatment centers and workshops, providing private tuition and in addition conducting world-wide correspondence courses. Within the middle-70s Konitz documented many albums with Warne Marsh, all obtaining immediate crucial and commercial recognition. He also created a nine-piece music group modelled upon the main one led by Davis where he had performed 30 years previous. One of hardly any alto saxophonists of his era not to have already been affected by Charlie Parker, Konitz were able to avoid being solid in virtually any mould besides that which he produced himself. Unlike a lot of his peers, he offers became flexible and with the capacity of continuously growing to support new ideas. In overall performance his sound offers changed over time. Originally he used a deliberately slim audio but he thickened this during his period with Kenton, essential to avoid becoming drowned by the quantity of the music group. (‘It had not been easy playing alto for the reason that music group. Next time about, I’d rather become the drummer.’) Deeply thinking about and focused on jazz education, Konitz encourages his college students to respect their materials and through his programs strives to instruct single improvisation, something he relation as being as much a measurable self-discipline as ensemble performing. His very own playing continues to be exemplary of this strain of modern music which stresses thoughtfulness instead of instinctive replies. In 2002, he earned the DownBeat critics prize for alto saxophonist of the entire year.