Lee Konitz & Dan Tepfer
Biography Lee Konitz & Dan Tepfer
Lee Konitz
Alto Saxophonist Konitz has enjoyed one of the most creative and prolific careers in modern jazz. After an early experience with the Claude Thornhill Orchestra and Stan Kenton’s Orchestra, the innovative small groups of pianist Lennie Tristano, and the Miles Davis Capitol Orchestra ("Birth of the Cool"), Konitz turned freelance and has remained on the cutting edge of post-bop improvisation ever since.
He has occasionally led a nonet (now resurrected!) and various quartets, but his exceptionally large and varied discography also includes an early unaccompanied saxophone solo album, several innovative albums of duets that spanned jazz styles, and collaborations which reads like the "who’s who” of the Jazz world. Lee Konitz is the only still active musician to have played all three ever excisting Birdland clubs in New York City.
Like Gil Evans or Coleman Hawkins Lee has always been open and interested to play with younger musicans and to participate in exciting new musical projects co-lead by them (like the Lee Konitz New Nonet or the Lee Konitz-Ohad Talmor String Project). A new book about Lee Konitz (by Andy Hamilton) was published in 2007. He has received the NEA Jazz Masters Award in 2009.
Recently Lee Konitz has performed in a duo setting with pianist Dan Tepfer and his New Quartet, followed by a CD released with Brad Mehldau, Charlie Haden and the late Paul Motian.
In 2012 another quartet constellation featuring Bill Frisell, Gary Peacock and Joey Baron has emerged.
Lee was voted "Alto Saxophonist of the Year" by Downbeat Magazine Critics Poll in 2010 and numerous times before that. In July 2013 he was awarded the "German Jazz Prize" for
his life in music.
Dan Tepfer
has made a name for himself as a pianist-composer of wide-ranging ambition, individuality and drive — “a remarkable musician” in the words of the Washington Post and one “who refuses to set himself limits” in those of France’s Télérama. The New York City-based Tepfer, born in 1982 in Paris to American parents, has performed with some of the leading lights in jazz, including extensively with veteran saxophone luminary Lee Konitz. As a leader, Tepfer has crafted a discography already striking for its breadth and depth, ranging from probing solo improvisation and intimate duets to richly layered trio albums of original compositions. His Sunnyside/Naïve album Goldberg Variations / Variations saw the prize-winning pianist performing J.S. Bach’s masterpiece as well as improvising upon it to “build a bridge across centuries and genres” (Wall Street Journal) in “an impressive feat that keeps coming back to a hearty and abiding respect” (New York Times). As a composer, he is a recipient of the Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for works including Concerto for Piano and Winds, premiered in the Prague Castle with himself on piano, and Solo Blues for Violin and Piano, premiered at Carnegie Hall. Bringing together his undergraduate studies in astrophysics with his passion for music, he is currently working on integrating computer-driven algorithms into his improvisational approach. Awards include first prize and audience prize at the Montreux Jazz Festival Solo Piano Competition, first prize at the East Coast Jazz Festival Competition, and the Cole Porter Fellowship from the American Pianists Association.
