February 15, 2015
STILL TRYING:
Konitz keeps the conversation going with duo gig : At 87, sax man still prefers the give-and-take of the duet (ROGER LEVESQUE, 2/12/15, EDMONTON JOURNAL)
Q: In your early 20s, you met pianist Lennie Tristano. What was the most significant thing to come from that?A: Well, that was a big piece of good luck for me. I was trying different approaches to improvisation and I learned a lot with him. Improvising for the most part is what guys do when they're fooling around at home, and when they go out to perform they play what they know, so it's not really improvising per se. I'm still trying to figure out how to stand in front of the audience and start from the first note.Q: Some say you were one of the first players to offer an alternative sound to Charlie "Bird" Parker on the alto sax.A: It wasn't that I didn't love Charlie Parker, but Tristano was responsible for telling me that I had to make (the saxophone) my own somehow. When I heard Sonny Stitt and all those hippies imitating, I thought, 'they're so good they even think they invented that music,' but I was able to make it personal enough. I think it still suggested my love of Parker, but I was able to be myself.
Posted by Orrin Judd at February 15, 2015 9:08 AM
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