Jazz Artists of the Day – Lee Konitz and Pharoah Sanders on their shared birthday – October 13th!!
Two iconic jazz saxophone players share October 13th as their birthdays. one, alto sax player Lee Konitz, is considered one of the main figures in the cool jazz movement, although Konitz has also performed successfully in bebop and avant-garde settings throughout his career. The other, tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders is an important figure in the development of free jazz. Konitz recorded with Miles Davis in 1949 and 1950 tracks that became the Birth of the Cool album. From Wikipedia.. The presence of Konitz and other white musicians in the group angered some black jazz players, many of whom were unemployed at the time, but Davis rebuffed their criticisms.[5] Konitz has stated that he considered the group to belong to Gerry Mulligan, and credits Lennie Tristano as the true forebearer of “the cool” Konitz over his career recorded more than 100 albums as a leader and dozens more as a sideman with the likes of: Lennie Tristano, Stan Kenton,Charles Mingus, Bill Evans, Gerry Mulligan and others. I listened to a little of Konitz’s album Trouble in Mind released in June 2014 on Jump. I have never listened to much of Konitz’ music, but from what I heard tonight, he certainly seems to have a distinctive sound. Speaking of distinctive sounds. From Wikipedia about Pharoah Sanders… Saxophonist Ornette Coleman once described him (Sanders) as “probably the best tenor player in the world.”[1] Eme rging from John Coltrane‘s groups of the mid-1960s Sanders is known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on the saxophone, as well as…
