The appearance of Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh in Hull must rank with the most unlikely jazz events of the past decade, at least. The thought of Konitz and Marsh playing together again after a gap of eleven years is in itself a fairly unlikely prospect, that they should be playing in Hull is even more improbable. Nevertheless, thanks to the efforts of Bernie Cash, on March 9th some three hundred enthusiasts were treated to a quite exceptional two hours of superb music making.
Having heard the band at the Seven Dials at the end of last year, I knew what to expect. Nevertheless, the impact of Warne Marsh as he is currently playing is something which has to be heard to be believed. In my opinion, he is the greatest tenor saxophonist active in jazz at present. No record that I have heard does even a moderate measure of justice to his incredible technique and invention. Two solos (both simply with the fine rhythm section of Peter Ind on bass and Alan Levitt on drums) of outstanding merit were an exquisite version of Easy Living, and a medium-tempo version of It’s Only A Paper Moon with some unbelievably double-time passages. This followed an immaculate version of You Go To My Head by Konitz, that started unaccompanied, and gradually brought in Peter Ind to make a duo and finally Al Levitt to make it a trio. Marsh sensed that even he could hardly top Konitz’s performance with a ballad of his own, and sensibly chose a contrasting tune.
The band had had no time for rehearsal, as the sotto voce discussions between each tune showed. Nevertheless, they played many of the very complex lines by the Tristano school from the forties with hardly a mistake – Wow, Sound Lee, Subconscious Lee, East 32nd – as well as the almost equally intricate bebop lines of Chi Chi and Donna Lee.
Konitz took rather longer to warm up than Marsh, and had some reed trouble which caused him to wince a few times, but he reached his best with a themeless version of Lady Be Good, in which he played Lester Young’s 1936 choruses accompanied by Peter Ind on bass. Konitz and Marsh have enormous mutual respect and it is probably not possible for either to play really badly in the other’s presence. Each of them provides the other with the stimulus to strive for perfection, and it is amazing how often they achieve it. They certainly did on an immaculate version of Body And Soul.
