Lee Konitz’s 1961 ‘Motion’ Gets Vinyl Rerelease
The jazz album is among the saxophonist’s finest works and is the latest addition to Verve’s acclaimed Acoustic Sounds Series.
Lee Konitz’s Motion is the latest album to join Verve’s Acoustic Sounds Series. Recorded and released in 1961, the jazz album lives up to the fluidity of its name, and is among the saxophonist’s finest works.
Produced by the legendary Creed Taylor, the session brought together a first-time trio of Konitz, bassist Sonny Dallas and drummer Elvin Jones. The result is five conversational, often abstract takes on standards including “All of Me,” “I Remember You,” and “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To.”
In the original liner notes, Konitz said: “After over twenty years of playing, I find that music is like a great woman: the better you treat her, the happier she is. There’s not much for me to say about my music—I play because it’s one of the few things that make sense to me.”
The notes also said of Motion: “It was made one afternoon at the end of August with Elvin Jones and Sonny Dallas. This was the first time the three of us had played together: in fact, ‘I Remember You’ was the first tune of the session. We just played what would be the equivalent of a couple sets in a club and got these five tunes for the album. Elvin loves to play and gets lots of things going on and the time is always strong; he really is something else. Sonny, to me, is one of the best bass players around. So I was fortunate to have a good strong rhythm section. Playing with bass and drums gives me the most room to go in whichever direction I choose; a chordal instrument is restricting to me. The thing that I like about this set is that everyone is trying to improvise. The music will speak for itself.”
Verve Acoustic Sounds Series titles are mastered from the original analog tapes by Matthew Lutthans, pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Quality Record Pressings (QRP) and packaged in high-quality tip-on gatefold jackets.
