George Schuller

"For Lee"
Commission Piece Coming Soon

After months of practically no physical musical interaction with other humans...playing, kvetching or otherwise...I decided to write something slow and reflective about the legendary saxophonist Lee Konitz, who had passed away in April 2020 of covid complications. I had the pleasure of playing with him on and off since the 90s especially during his last ten years.

I thought about writing a "line" tune...something based on familiar changes which he and his Tristano colleagues were famous for, but decided to take a cue from Charlie Haden who several years ago wrote a very effective and beautiful simple composition called "Silence," a melody of only whole notes, pocket size.

With that premise...and since I was a bit out of practice from a year-long pandemic lay-a-way, I dug around my old scrapbooks of incomplete musical ideas (most abandoned for good reason), but hoping to find that one little spark...eventually finding something that perked my ears enough to give it new life.

I can imagine the melody to be played alone at first very slow through the first chorus, and then joined by scant harmony for the next chorus, followed by roots and passing tones by the third go around. And perhaps by the 4th chorus, bring in a soloist to play on top as it repeats and builds.

A simple nod to an extraordinary musician.