Lee Konitz | en

Lee Konitz (born October 13, 1927 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American jazz composer and saxophone player. Konitz is sometimes regarded as the preeminent cool jazz saxophonist, because he performed and recorded with Claude Thornhill, Lennie Tristano (both often cited as important cool jazz proponents of the mid 1940s), and with Miles Davis' on his epochal Birth of the Cool, which gave the form its name. Konitz has also been repeatedly noted as one of the few jazz saxophonists of the late 1940s and 1950s who did not seem imitative of the massively influential Charlie Parker. In the early 1950s,...

Konitz began on clarinet, studying in the classical form, later switching to alto saxophone. In the mid-late 40s he played in the bands of Jerry Wald and Claude Thornhill, appeared on jazz dates with Miles Davis and was simultaneously studying with Lennie Tristano, with whom he also recorded. In the early 50s he worked for a while with Stan Kenton and although he left the band before the end of 1953, he had established his name and an international reputation. From the mid-50s onwards Konitz generally led his own bands, recording and playing publicly, and made a brief return visit...