Jazz saxophonist Lee Konitz has died, aged 92

According to a jazz site Lee Konitz has died. Very sorry to hear this. Met him once. One of the great jazz alto saxophonists.
Lee Konitz R.I.P.

 

So sorry to hear this. Was lucky enough to see him in a small performance space with Dan Tepfer in 2015. What a long, long career he had!

 

RiP Lee. Master of tone like Dexter Gordon. I have Motion and Another Shade of Blue. Got recs from the record store Aomeba and a column in Guitar Player mag by by Jim Campinolongo. Such timeless music.

 

Sigh. I’ll be playing some of his music tonight.

Thanks for the great music, Lee.

 

Rest In Peace

 

It looks like the great Sheila Jordan (check out Portrait of Sheila, great album) found out via Birdland's FB post.

I wish I caught more performances, but I did see him once, again with Tepfer, and only a few days before he turned 90. But it was unmistakably him, a beautiful player to the end. A highly memorable performance. FWIW, it was an outdoor show, and some people further back in the audience wanted him to play into a mic, but every time a stage hand approached him with one, he'd walk away, still playing. (They finally gave up.) Towards the end, he wanted to try his hand at scat singing - I never heard him sing before, so I can't say if he was ever consistently good at singing, but every now and then, his voice wouldn't be up to the melodies in his head, and he'd respond with a raspberry. Tepfer eventually sat with him and they both scatted a bit on the last song. It was touching - the guy has done enough to fill two lifetimes of great work, if he wanted to try singing on his last number, it was well earned.

 

A brilliant artist who's clean and beautiful playing could seem deceptively simple. RIP.

 

They just confirmed it was pneumonia related to COVID-19. That damn virus...

Lee Konitz, Alto Saxophonist Who Exemplified Jazz's Imperative to Make It New, Is Dead at 92

 

Oh man... Art Dudley, now Konitz... Wow

 

Lee suffered from respiratory issues in the last decade or so of his life, and would often sing a chorus or two of a tune if he felt he didn't have the breath to play it.

 

Tepfer, yes, he was with Konitz at the Blue Note a couple years ago. Amazing player.

 

Wow, that’s too bad. Such history in that man. Goes back so far and his involvement with such monumental musical events.

I wonder how old he was in that picture in the first post???

 

One of the great saxophonists and musicians of our time. Such a lyrical and beautiful playing style. I’ll to have revisit Kenny Wheeler’s Angel Song. R.I.P., Mr. Konitz.

 

RIP. 92 is a great age, he had a good run. That's longer than the life expectancy in my family. Currently listening to his 1961 album Motion on the Verve label.

 

Sad to read this.
R.I.P., Lee.

Thank you for all you great music...

 

Relatively brief but excellent obit in the Wasington Post.

"Instead of imitating Parker’s restless, high-speed cascades of sound, Mr. Konitz went in a different musical direction, developing improvised solos that seemed to float like clouds, structured not as bursts of sound but as well-wrought musical sculptures."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/loca...adf3b2-7fde-11ea-8013-1b6da0e4a2b7_story.html

 

Very sad to hear. I saw him 6 times (all since 2003). Hung out with him and his band after the show on a couple of occasions. A huge, under-appreciated (IMO) figure in jazz.

Don't know how long he would have lived without the pandemic, but it's horrible that his life was taken in this preventable way.

RIP - a favorite of mine since I discovered him. A creative musician and a gentle person.

 

He had heart problems regularing surgery in the past. He was scheduled to appear at Melbourne's Recital Centre in 2011 for the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, but he canceled due to illness.

At the time of his death, he had pneumonia.

 

RIP

Another victim of Corona.

 

I saw him a couple of times in Montréal and in Vienna.
I have a cute anecdote about him: the last time I saw him (2011 I think), for the last encore, his drummer had to leave to catch a flight. So he was left with the bassist and the pianist. He asked the audience what we wanted to hear him play. Some people asked for weird stuff, totally unrelated to what he does but I managed to be heard and asked for "Out of Nowhere" to which he answed "That, I can play!". And he played it superbly.
So the last time I heard him live, he played "my" request!!!

A big loss... From the Birth of the Cool sessions to the recent album with Kenny Barron, he leaves us a huge discography... And I have so many of them...
In the top drawer, I'd put "Three Guys" in trio with Steve Swallow and Paul Motian, the duet with Red Mitchell, the duet with Michel Petrucciani, the third volume of the Standard series with Lovano, Frisell, Haden and Motian, "Motion" of course with Elvin Jones and Sonny Dallas and I have a weak spot for "Tenorlee" (on the tenor!) with Jimmy Rowles and Michael Moore... "Angel Song" with Kenny Wheeler, Frisell, Holland. Oh, and under Henri Texier's name, "Respect", with Bob Brookmeyer, Steve Swallow (yup, 2 bassists on this album!) and Paul Motian...
But there are so many more out there...

RIP Mr. Konitz.

 

RIP Lee Konitz.

Was he the last surviving musician from the Birth Of The Cool sessions?

 

Several obits I saw this morning mentioned that he was, though he was actually critical of those recordings:

But 60 years after those historic recordings were made, Konitz sat in his Upper West Side living room and dismissed Birth of the Cool as merely written music, with incidental solos, having little to do with what he saw as the heart of jazz: improvisation.

"'Improvisary' means 'unforheard' — unforeseen — I don't know what the Latin word for 'heard' is, but it's something like that," Konitz said. "And that's a question that I ask the so-called improvisers: How much of what you're improvising is really pre-planned? The idea that the music is full of surprises."

Lee Konitz, Prolific And Influential Jazz Saxophonist, Dies At 92

 

I like his playing but didn't know much about him, so just read his wiki. He was *incredibly* prolific. In the 5 years between 1974 and 1979 he released 24 albums (as "leader or co-leader")!! There were several years in the 50s where he had 3 or 4 releases per year.

Terrible news. But glad he stuck around for 93 years.

 

He was a bit of a cantankerous character right?
RIP Lee. Death Of The Cool

 

Only got to see him play once, perhaps thirty years ago, met him very briefly, he seemed like a very down to earth guy.