Lee Konitz interviewed

Lee Konitz seemed a tad gruff during the interview, something less than forthcoming, quite different from his stage behavior, reports David Rubien and blames it on the heat or the jet lag ( San Francisco Chronicle ). He's annoyed by the sneeze of a neighbor or by people at the next table hitting the plate loudly with a fork. And he doesn't really want to talk about his life in public. He plays music and that's all he can talk about. But then he does talk about life and music and tells Rubien how in his youth he was fascinated by Benny Goodman, about his time with Claude Thornhill, about getting to know Lennie Tristano, about how Miles Davis was criticized hiring a white alto saxophonist for his Capitol Nonet. In music the thing most important for him is improvisation. He mostly plays a handful of standard tunes but he still comes up with new things to play over the well-worn changes.