Jazz - ENJ95172

Lee Konitz (who turned 80 just three weeks after this recording) was a key figure in the innovations of 1949 that became known as the birth of the 'cool school.' The connecting link between Miles Davis' Capitol Orchestra and Lennie Tristano's sextet, Lee Konitz played the alto sax with a smoothness and emotional restraint that were totally new in jazz then. At the same time he was saying so much more on his horn - melodywise, rhythmwise - than generations of sax players before or after him. Over decades Konitz stayed true to his cool message: a mobile magician of the saxophone inventing new melodic lines on the spot, again and again and again. Not a player to ignite your feelings with expressiveness or blue notes, never a populist or crowd-pleaser, Konitz has chosen the narrow path of concentration, strictness, and style. "I have the feeling I could play the same songs over and over again and still find new variations," he says. His timing is a miracle. His improvised lines have a beauty all their own, often enigmatic and eccentric. This is great art at its most inconspicuous.

Half a century after that legendary 'year of the cool,' three young students at Berklee College of Music found themselves in the process of forming an extraordinary trio: Minsarah. The word "minsarah" is Hebrew and means "prism". Like a prism that makes the colors in white light visible, this trio breaks up conventional structures discovering their hidden dramatical, lyrical, melodic and rhythmic facets and bringing them to the surface. A trio of equals, all three are able to compose for the band and take the leading role. The trio's pianist, Florian Weber from Germany, is a multi-award winner and also a renowned classical player. American bass player Jeff Denson received the Berklee Outstanding Performer Award in 2002. Born in Israel, Ziv Ravitz was the house drummer at Tel Aviv's Camelot Jazz Club and a recipient of the Zildjian Scholarship Award in 2003. In 2006 Minsarah received a German Record Critics Award for their outstanding album "Minsarah."

The cooperation between Lee Konitz and Trio Minsarah is not just a strike of big luck but the subsequent result of an obvious spiritual and artistical affinity. The saxophone player considers this young international trio the best and most inspiring accompanists he had in a long time. Evidently Minsarah's spontaneous, ever surprising ways of improvising as a trio are deeply related to Konitz' all-improvisational, non-repetitive musical concept. So "Deep Lee" is not just "a saxophone plus trio" but a quartet of individualists inspiring (and writing for) each other. It's the Konitz Principle, extended to band format. It's Lee as deep as Lee can get.

Track Listing:

Three-Part Suite
1. No. 1: Invention
2. No. 2: Chorale
3. No. 3: Canon
4. Deep Lee
5. Stella By Starlight
6. Cactus
7. As The Smoke Clears
8. W 86th
9. See The World For The First Time
10. Color
11. Spiders