Lee Konitz is probably the only alto sax player of his generation who wasn't influenced by Charlie Parker. At the outset this willful alto chose a sound so rarefied as the air surrounding the summit of the Mount Everest, but in the big band of Sten Kenton he was forced to thicken his musical material vigorously. “It wasn't easy playing alto with Kenton”, Konitz once confessed in an interview and added: “If I ever had to do it again, I would play drums in that band”. In spite of his thicker sound Konitz did succeed in conserving his own sound and vocabulary through the years. This unique musician has always held thoughtfulness higher than impulsive easy-going.
