In Memoriam: Lee Konitz

Lee Konitz, Warne Marsh, and Lennie Tristano (from the Amazon.com Web page for the Mosaic collection of their Atlantic Recordings)

Those that do not read The New York Times regularly may be unaware that the newspaper has been running a series entitled Those We’ve Lost consisting of obituaries about people whose deaths can be attributed to the coronavirus pandemic. One of those obituaries appeared today for jazz saxophonist Lee Konitz, who died of “complications of the coronavirus” yesterday in Manhattan at the age of 92. Granted, one of my Yiddish-speaking ancestors would probably say, “You should live so long;” but I have been fortunate enough to encounter several major jazz musicians of the twentieth century that did “live so song.” To my great regret, Konitz was not one of them.

The obituary was written by journalist and editor Peter Keepnews, one of the two sons of Orrin Keepnews, founder of Riverside Records, Milestone Records, and Landmark Records, and Director of Jazz A&R for Fantasy Records. Konitz was one of the notable jazz masters to have recorded on Milestone, along with others such as McCoy Tyner and Joe Henderson. A cursory Google query quickly revealed that Peter has written several jazz obituaries for the Times.

Given his background, both personal and family, he definitely knows whereof he writes. Nevertheless, where jazz is concerned, it often seems that each of us has his/her own personal perspective of priorities. Several of mine were slighted in the Times obituary; and, without trying to be provocative, I would like to cite a few aspects of Konitz’ career that did not “make the cut” in Keepnews’ obituary.

Where recordings are concerned, I was more than a little disappointed by the absence of any explicit mention of Birth of the Cool. It would be hard to imagine any account of the life and works of trumpeter Miles Davis that failed to cite this album. Keepnews did mention the “short-lived but influential nine-piece band” that recorded the twelve tracks on the album; but the album is never called out by name. The recording sessions  took place on January 21, 1949, April 22, 1949, and March 9, 1950; and the membership of the nonet was different at each session. However, the instrumentation was constant; and there were only three other musicians that played with Davis at all three sessions. Konitz on alto saxophone was one of them; and the others were Gerry Mulligan on baritone saxophone and Bill Barber on tuba.

In a similar manner I would like to flesh out a bit more perspective on another key observation in the Keepnews obituary. Keepnews cited “the pianist and composer Lennie Tristano, with whom he [Konitz] studied for several years and whose unorthodox approach to improvisation helped shape his own.” Without trying to detract from Tristano’s legacy, whose work I first encountered through a 1997 Mosaic anthology, I would submit that much of that “shaping” was the result of the trio sessions that brought tenor saxophonist Warne Marsh together with Konitz and Tristano. To be fair to Keepnews, Marsh is never mentioned in the Wikipedia biographical account of Konitz; but those that click through to the Konitz discography page will find Marsh’s name on eight separate recordings!

Should anyone accuse me of personal bias in citing the above observations, I shall have no trouble replying, “Guilty as charged!”