
John Zorn has described 86-year-old saxophonist Lee Konitz as a "brilliant, adventurous and original" jazz improviser, and there's plenty of proof in this often spellbinding improv set recorded in London in 2010 that puts Konitz in the company of Paris-born pianist Dan Tepfer and London-based Americans Michael Janisch (bass) and Jeff Williams (drums). They use standard songs to get their bearings, but choose which and when and who plays what on the fly. Tepfer, Janisch and Williams add up to a superb piano trio in their own right, and Konitz picks up their suggestions and supplies his own with his characteristically wispy, falling-leaves phrases, sly bebop figures and wincing, sweet-sour treble tone. Tepfer is a little too much in Konitz's face on the bebop classic Billie's Bounce, but the band are subtly intertwined on a drifting, fitfully swinging All the Things You Are, while the luxuriously emphatic bass intro to Alone Together is a reminder of Janisch's musicality and power, and Konitz's signature song, Subconscious Lee, is a fast-moving and inventive ensemble conversation.
