CD Review: 'Deep Lee' by Lee Konitz and Minsarah

Alto saxophonist and cool jazz innovator Lee Konitz, who will turn 82 in October, isn't about to coast through the final chapters of his recording career. Prolific as ever, he's still looking for musicians to challenge and inspire him.

He has found both on "Deep Lee," an acoustic session with the trio Minsarah, an international array of young talent featuring German pianist Florian Weber, Israeli-born drummer Ziv Ravitz and American bassist Jeff Denson. With its diverse influences, the trio steers Konitz into a variety of settings distinguished by chamber jazz textures, small combo jags and melodic improv. There's only one standard, "Stella by Starlight," and even that is freely interpreted by Konitz.

The remaining pieces are original compositions that make the most of Weber's classical training and the group's flair for balancing rich sonorities and contrapuntal designs ("Invention") with out-of-kilter shuffles and bright, dissonant excursions ("W 86th"). Weber's merits are immediately evident; he's the trio's most distinctive voice. But even some of the album's most appealing performances are colored by Denson's bowed bass and Ravitz's textured percussion, while Konitz is in sync with his young colleagues.