Alone Together [Batch 8]

Personnel: Lee Konitz (alto saxophone); Brad Mehldau (piano); Charlie Haden (bass).
Recorded live at the Jazz Bakery, Los Angeles, California on December 21 & 22, 1996. Includes liner notes by Art Lange.
Recorded live at L.A.'s Jazz Bakery, this beautiful disc captures the first musical meeting of pianist Brad Mehldau and saxophonist Lee Konitz with their mutual friend Charlie Haden. The way these three musicians are able to use the formal structures of standard tunes as their basis for improvising, and reconstruct the tunes using a spontaneously-created mutual language is moving to hear. Brad Mehldau's immediate departure into mountainous territory and his abrupt solo endings are exciting, as is Haden's bending and stretching of phrases in his accompaniment. Konitz is, as always, inspired, as he works his way into the cracks of the melodies and polishes them from both inside and out.