[Dixielandjazz] Lee Konitz - Still Swinging

[Stephen G Barbone]

December 19, 2009 - NY TIMES - By Nate Chinen

Spanning Generations While Sticking to Old Standards


There was a time when the alto saxophonist Lee Konitz wasn’t a regular  
attraction on the New York club circuit. Actually, that was the case  
for much of his career: Mr. Konitz, never the warmest or most  
ingratiating of jazz legends, has long had a fickle relationship with  
the spotlight. That probably says more about the spotlight than it  
does about his art, which has been consistent over the years,  
obstinately so. Now 82, he has settled into a late-career renaissance  
by renewing the same lines of inquiry he’s had all along.

Of course it helps that he keeps changing the context, or letting it  
change around him. Last week Mr. Konitz was at Birdland with an all- 
star quartet whose youngest member, at 39, was the pianist Brad  
Mehldau. This week he’s working at Iridium with another  
intergenerational group, jointly headlined by the eminently gifted  
tenor saxophonist Mark Turner, who is 44. Without really trying, the  
engagement serves both as a tribute to Mr. Konitz’s early style and a  
confirmation of his endless renewal.

The band’s alto-and-tenor frontline is meant to evoke the brand of  
postwar chamber bop that Mr. Konitz made with Warne Marsh, a revered  
but now largely unheralded peer. This is useful, up to a point: Mr.  
Turner is the leading proponent of a tenor saxophone style traceable  
to Marsh, with a translucent sound, an almost feathery cadence and a  
brilliantly discursive take on harmony. And the pianist in the group  
is Ethan Iverson, of the Bad Plus; earlier this year on his band’s  
blog (thebadplus.typepad.com) he published an impressive suite of  
essays about the pianist Lennie Tristano, who counted Marsh and Mr.  
Konitz among his prize students (and occasional band mates).

All of this background is pertinent, but most of it fell away after  
the first tune of the first set on Thursday night. It took just that  
long for the musicians to acknowledge and then evict the ghosts in the  
room, fleshing out their own rapport in real time. Mr. Konitz, with  
his allergic reactions to overt sentimentality and personal cliché,  
naturally led the charge.

He was helped greatly by the terrific energy in the rhythm section,  
with the bassist Ben Street, a contemporary of Mr. Turner, and the  
drummer Tootie Heath, who comes from roughly the same era as Mr.  
Konitz. Particularly on a debonair “I Remember You,” Mr. Heath played  
the subtle mischief-maker, laying into his ride cymbal and then  
pulling back, adding and subtracting pressure, toggling between a  
rumble and a glide.

The set consisted entirely of standards — “Body and Soul” was  
exquisite, “Cherokee” a little lumpy — and everyone but Mr. Heath had  
the chance to fashion a prelude. One of the best and briefest of these  
involved Mr. Konitz and Mr. Iverson alone together, leading into “Darn  
That Dream.” (Someone needs to book them as a duo.) But the main point  
was the erudite focus of the full ensemble, and the total absence of  
complacency.

The Lee Konitz-Mark Turner Quartet continues through Sunday at  
Iridium, 1650 Broadway, at 51st Street, (212) 582-2121.