# Oh, hell. Jazz great Lee Konitz, RIP

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-hell-jazz-great-lee-konitz-rip/851992>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** celebrity-death\
**Created:** [April 17, 2020, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-hell-jazz-great-lee-konitz-rip/851992 "2020-04-17T17:44:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-hell-jazz-great-lee-konitz-rip/851992/1 "2020-04-17T17:44:56Z")

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Dead at 92 of the ‘rona.

The last remaining member of the groundbreaking 1949 Miles Davis “Birth of the Cool” Nonet, member of the Lennie Tristano Sextet, and bandleader in his own right.

> **[Lee Konitz, Prolific And Influential Jazz Saxophonist, Dies At 92](https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/15/835634362/lee-konitz-prolific-and-influential-jazz-saxophonist-has-died-at-92)**
>
> Konitz was devoted to improvisation and played on more than 100 albums over a seven-decade career, including the historic sessions that became Miles Davis' album Birth of the Cool.

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**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-hell-jazz-great-lee-konitz-rip/851992/2 "2020-04-17T21:57:25Z")

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Probably the best jazz show I ever saw was Lee Konitz with Paul Bley and Steve Swallow, at the Regattabar, Cambridge, Mass. I think it was September of 2000. Sat maybe 10 feet from the stage. What a trio!

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**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-hell-jazz-great-lee-konitz-rip/851992/3 "2020-04-17T23:25:22Z")

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Lordy, did they ever record together? There’s a trio I’d want to hear (alto sax, piano, and bass, for th’ squares).

First time I heard Konitz, he was leading his Nonet at the Jazz Forum, a 12th floor loft at the corner of Broadway and Great Jones Street. Summer of 1981. Great venue, closed a year later. Floor-thru loft space, stage in the middle facing the bar on the other side, long stretches of comfy sofas where you could lean back and light up a reefer.

Jimmy Knepper (trombone) was in the band, with Charli Persip on drums. The trumpet was a very young Tom Harrell, the paranoid schizophrenic…Lee was very fatherly toward him, watching over him carefully when he soloed. At one point, Tom freaked out in the middle of a chorus and left the stage, and Lee very smoothly stepped up and took over the solo. We were impressed.

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**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\
**Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-hell-jazz-great-lee-konitz-rip/851992/4 "2020-04-18T02:10:19Z")

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> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#):
>
> Lordy, did they ever record together?

Not that I’m aware of. There is [this](https://www.discogs.com/Lee-Konitz-Paul-Bley-Out-Of-Nowhere/release/3251728), which is just fine, and another called Pyramid, which I haven’t heard.