Trailblazing jazz saxophonist Lee Konitz dies

[caption id="attachment_579731" align="alignnone" width="2560"] A medical staff member walks with a covered face to protect against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the state hospital in Skopje, North Macedonia March 12, 2020. REUTERS/Ognen Teofilovski[/caption]

The groundbreaking jazz saxophonist Lee Konitz, perhaps best known for his work on the pivotal Miles Davis album "Birth of the Cool," has died following coronavirus complications. He was 92. Konitz, a prolific artist celebrated for his improvisation savvy over a seven-decade career, died after a battle with COVID-19, according to his Facebook page.

Born Leon Konitz in Chicago on October 13, 1927, the musician was the youngest of three in a Jewish immigrant family. He started playing the clarinet as a child before switching to saxophone, the instrument he used to cultivate a singular, uninflected style that set him apart from the era's dominant Charlie Parker, whom Konitz considered a friend. "The blues never connected with me," he told The Wall Street Journal in 2013. "I knew and loved Charlie Parker and copied his bebop solos like everyone else."

"But I didn't want to sound like him. So I used almost no vibrato and played mostly in the higher register. That's the heart of my sound." Konitz was the last surviving musician who played in Davis's "Birth of the Cool" sessions, which he later described as far more arranged than the improvisational style with which he would make his name.