Jazzlore: Lee Konitz / Warne Marsh

Performer: Lee Konitz
Engineer: Tom Dowd...
Distributor: E1 Distribution (USA)

Notes: Personnel: Lee Konitz (alto saxophone); Warne Marsh (tenor saxophone); Sal Mosca, Ronnie Ball (piano); Billy Bauer (guitar); Oscar Pettiford (bass); Kenny Clarke (drums). Recorded at East Coast Studios, New York, New York on June 15 & 21, 1956. Originally released on Atlantic (1217). Includes liner notes by Barry Ulanov. Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh started playing duo saxophone lines together with their teacher and mentor Lennie Tristano starting in the late '40s. Konitz went on to have the more active career though he was perhaps a little too abstract a musician to achieve the commercial success of a Paul Desmond. Marsh's musical concept is even more unusual--he has just about the driest reed sound outside of Anthony Braxton. The two saxophone brothers met up a few other times but this 1956 Atlantic album is their peak together and a highlight in Konitz's extensive discography. Guitarist Billy Bauer (another Tristano alumnus) provides requisite harmonic support on lively explorations of "Topsy," "I Can't Get Started," and Miles Davis's bebop classic "Donna Lee."

While bebop was the jazz avant-garde of the late 1940's, there was a parallel movement about the same time as pianist Lennie Tristano and alto saxophonist Lee Konitz unofficially led the school of cool jazz. While preeminent alto icon Charlie Parker burned hot and bluesy (while still abstract), Konitz had an altogether drier, more cerebral, and subdued approach. Besides Tristano, he performed and recorded with Miles Davis, and bandleaders Claude Thornhill and Stan Kenton, before finally establishing himself as a leader. As his career extends into the `00s, Konitz is one of the few players of his generation who still stretches himself. Ever contemporary, he's recorded unaccompanied; with straight-ahead trios and quartets, etc.; and with string sections; and has engaged in totally free improvisation with the U.K. collective Company (often featuring Derek Bailey).

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