The Original #AloneTogether

The world lost a jazz legend last week to the COVID-19 virus—and GDS creative music director Brad Linde lost a mentor, his inspiration, and a dear friend. Lee Konitz (1927-2020) was a trailblazer in modern jazz, starting in 1947 and continuing with Lennie Tristano, Charlie Mingus, Miles Davis, Stan Kenton, Charlie Haden and so many more. Brad met him in 2008, and they played their first gig together 10 years ago this week. Lee also came to GDS on his 90th birthday, and we had a party for him before his performance at the Kennedy Center.

We are sharing this article Brad was asked to write about Lee as well as a GDS-centric article about being alone but together through music. So queue up Lee’s 1997 album “Alone Together” and read. One final thought from Brad: “A lot of who I am as a musician and teacher is because of Lee—in fact, my distance learning is directly inspired by my studies with him.”

READ GDS's Not Alone In Music

READ Brad's tribute article

You can see many more photos on GDS Jazz Instagram (@gdsjazz)