Jazz Nocturne [Import, Limited Edition, Original recording remastered]

Lee Konitz, Lee Konitz & the Brazilian Band | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 8, 1999)
• Original Release Date: 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import, Limited Edition, Original recording remastered
• Label: Tokuma Japan Comm.
• ASIN: B00003WGB2
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,662,577 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. You'd Be So Nice To Come

2. Alone Together

3. My Funny Valentine

4. Misty

5. Body & Soul

6. In A Sentimental Mood

7. Everything Happens To Me

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mainstream jazz from a lateral-thinker, February 27, 2001

By 

N. Dorward "obsessive reviewer" (Toronto, ON Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jazz Nocturne (Audio CD)

Lee Konitz has so frequently avoided "ordinary" jazz situations that it's actually a rare treat to hear him do an album like this, with a roster of jazz standards performed by a straightahead American rhythm section--the great Kenny Barron on piano, James Genus on bass & Kenny Washington on drums. Konitz's playing is wonderfully unflashy--precisely because he's not interested in letting prefabricated licks fall under his fingers. When he lets a quick series of triplets fall out of his horn towards the end of "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To" it's a small surprise, & a sly response to the fleet lines of Barron. Unexpectedly for a player who started out under Tristano's wing, Konitz's tone is keening, alternately wry and plangent; it's like a distant cousin of Art Pepper. It's a nicely varied album: "Everything Happens to Me" is a sax-piano duo, which gives Barron a chance to show off his gentle stride-piano style; "Body and Soul" moves from duo to full quartet to a lovely acapella coda; "Alone Together" lets Lee stroll around with just bass and drums for a bit before the quartet digs in. Lee pulls out his soprano for two ballads, "Misty" & "My Funny Valentine". The renditions of standards are absolutely straightahead but without any sense of routine. It's a very warm, relaxed album, with four musicians palpably enjoying themselves.

Not one of Konitz's most adventurous performances, but certainly one of his most enjoyable.