Funding for the Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program NEA Jazz Master interview was provided by the National Endowment for the Arts. LEE KONITZ NEA Jazz Master (2009) Interviewee: Lee Konitz (b. October 13, 1927, in Chicago, IL) Interviewer: Bill Kirchner with recording engineer Ken Kimery Date: February 14-15, 2010 Repository: Archives Center, National Museum of American History Description: Transcript, 110 pp. Kirchner: So it is Valentines Day . Konitz: [singing] Happy W’alentines, Happy W’alentines. Kirchner: . .Two thousand eleven, and we’re in Lee Konitz’s apartment in Manhattan, and I’m Bill Kirchner, and we’re about to begin the oral history with Lee. Konitz: Welcome. Kirchner: Let’s start with the most obvious possible thing. Konitz: I was born at a very early age. Kirchner: Most of us were. Konitz: [chuckles] Kirchner: We have that in common among other things. For additional information contact the Archives Center at 202.633.3270 or
[email protected] 1 Page | 1 Konitz: [chuckles] Kirchner: What was your date of birth? Konitz: October thirteen, nineteen twenty-seven. Kirchner: And for the record, what is your full name? Konitz: “Leon” was my given name and “Lee” has become my second name. The fact is that I had two older brothers and I was supposed to be a girl, and my name was going to be “Leonna”. So I became “Leon” and then after a while my friends called me “Leo”, and then “Lee”, and it’s going to “Le”. When I get to “L” I think I’m leaving town. Kirchner: [Laughs] As I understand it from Andy Hamilton’s book your parents were both born in Europe? Konitz: Yes, my father in Austria, my mother in the Ukraine.