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5.0 out of 5 stars
Ever-fresh jazz, February 11, 2011
This review is from: Peacemeal (Audio CD)
PEACEMEAL is not the same old jazz. Recorded in 1969, some 40 years later it sounds as fresh as next week. It's the Konitz effect, of course; he has always brought a fresh approach to any kind of music he performed (he's still doing it at the age of 83!) But he has a lot of excellent help on this recording: Marshall Brown, a sometime high school jazz band educator who found he could compete on the professional stage as a valve trombonist and especially as an arranger and composer; the remarkable Dick Katz, like Brown an excellent arranger and musical director, and a fine pianist; plus a truly formidable young rhythm section of Eddie Gomez (one of Brown's former students), and Jack DeJohnette.
Konitz uses three Bartok piano pieces as the bases for jazz improvisations, with interesting results. More to the point, however, is his use of a Roy Eldridge solo on "Body and Soul" as the basis for some outstanding investigation of jazz tropes. Obviously, that solo, from a 1940 Commodore session led by Chu Berry, had been circulating in Lee's mind for some thirty years . . . and forty years later it still sounds cogent and exciting. This is the kind of magic Konitz weaves constantly. All of the other pieces on this recording are equally fascinating, including two of Katz'es written for this album, plus one reworked; and naturally, Lee's highly adaptable, even Procrustean, gem "Subconscious-Lee". A very rewarding album.
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