Motion

About

In the vast Lee Konitz discography, it’s hard to pick just one album that stands as the ultimate. But <i>Motion</i>—a loose, coolly incendiary trio set from 1961 with bassist Sonny Dallas and drummer Elvin Jones—is a top candidate for the alto saxophone master’s most representative and influential statement. There’s no chordal instrument, so Konitz is able to roam with a certain abstract abandon through the harmony of these standard tune, some of which (like the closer, “I’ll Remember April”) he’d continue playing straight through until his death in 2020 at age 92. Sonny Dallas recorded very little, so <i>Motion</i> is significant as one of his rare appearance. He’s muscular and unwavering on the walking tempo, as one must be when playing with Elvin Jone, who at this time was reinventing small-group jazz with John Coltrane’s historic quartet. Konitz and Coltrane were aesthetically worlds apart, but in a sense their quest to come at jazz harmony from every possible angle, reinventing the art of improvising in the proce, shared something essential. Elvin, therefore, couldn’t sound more at home. The tunes’ forms and shapes are readily discernible, but the soloing is free and open-ended, headed toward some other dimension. Konitz came to prominence in the wake of bebop and Charlie Parker, and the lure of sounding just like Parker was strong for many an alto saxophonist. But like his mentor Lennie Tristano, Konitz sought to absorb bebop’s lessons while finding his own language from the start. “I Remember You,” strongly associated with Parker, leads off <i>Motion</i>, and we hear that distinct language right away—dry and laidback yet ceaselessly inventive, not reliant on licks or convention. It’s there as well on “All of Me” and the Cole Porter classic “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To,” the longest and most exploratory cut. .

via Apple Music

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