Guitar Crosscurrents

For whatever reason, I’m always in the process of reading about 5 books at once. I never finish all of them, and the books that are on the list change every week or so, but it’s the way I’ve always done it. I would love to finish all of the books, but I never do.

I’ve been reading Lee Konitz: Conversations on the Improviser’s Art (Jazz Perspectives) by Andy Hamilton. Lee Konitz is a great alto saxophone player who’s turned 80 years old recently. He came to prominence as a collaborator with Miles Davis on the Birth of the Cool nonet project from the early 1950’s. He has a flow of consciousness sort of feel in his playing and his interviews are like that too. With extensive editing and additional interviews with other musicians who’ve played with Konitz, the portrait that emerges is very compelling and alive. A lot of attention is paid to Lee’s impressions of the work of his contemporaries, but my favorite sections involve his discussions of improvisation. One memorable quote: A great solo doesn’t care who plays it—meaning that virtuosity isn’t a requirement for excellence in jazz soloing.

Another book that I’ve been reading is about a virtuoso pianist and legendary teaching guru: Lennie Tristano: His Life in Music (Jazz Perspectives) (Hardcover) by Eunmi Shim. I’d read a complaint about this book on the Amazon.com site saying that the book had too little in the way of personal details and ‘too much analysis of his music and teaching techniques.’ Count me in! I’ve always been drawn to Tristano’s dark intervallic lines—kind of a musical answer to the moody film noir movies of the time.

A huge portion of Tristano’s time was devoted to teaching jazz. Students were required to listen to Lester Young solos, sing along with the recording, sing Lester’s lines without accompaniment, and, finally, put the solos onto the student’s instrument. Great music from the heart—placed there by lots of hard work!