Yusef Lateef - 4 Albums (1957-1961)

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Dr. Yusef Lateef (born William Emanuel Huddleston, October 9, 1920) is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer and educator and a renowned spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community after his conversion to Islam in 1950. Although Lateef's main instruments are the tenor saxophone and flute, he is known for his innovative blending of jazz with 'Eastern' music. In addition to the oboe and bassoon, both rare in jazz, Lateef plays various world music instruments, notably the bamboo flute, shanai, shofar, arghul, sarewa, and koto.~ wikipedia.

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Other Sounds was the first album on which Yusef Lateef looked beyond the confines of jazz and popular music to hear and perhaps "sing" the music he heard from the East. He hadn't yet embraced it, but it intrigued him enough to employ the use of an argol on this recording. Lateef's band on this date featured flügelhorn giant Wilbur Harden, pianist Hugh Lawson (who also played Turkish finger cymbals), bassist Ernie Farrow (who doubled on rebob), and drummer Oliver Jackson, who used an "earth-board" as well as his kit. The set begins innocently enough with a post-bop, semi-West Coast swing version of Irving Berlin's "All Alone" that's all Lateef. His lead with Harden quickly gives way to his long solo before the tune returns and they take it out. It's the next number here that marks jazz history. "Anastasia" begins with a deep gong from Japan and a dissonant Far East scale that calls drones into play against microtones and polyharmonics. After about two minutes it gives way to a gorgeously understated read of the Alfred Newman tune before giving way to the swinging blues of Lateef's own "Minor Mood," which should have perhaps been entitled "Minor Mode." The tune is most notable for Harden's slippery, open-toned solo in the middle register. The set ends with the beguiling and completely exotic "Mahaba," with the whole band engaging in vocal interplay in a made-up language and using all African instruments except for a flute. It sets the listener upright, and feels like an odd way to end a record, with this kind of inquiry, but that's Lateef at his best, always keeping listeners -- and his musicians -- on their toes. It's just beautiful. ~ Thom Jurek cduniverse

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Tracklist
1. All Alone
2. Anastasia
3. Minor Mood
4. Taboo
5. Lambert's Point
6. Mahaba

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In 1959, Yusef Lateef began using the oboe in his recording sessions and on live dates. This album marks that occasion, and is thus a turning point in an amazingly long and varied career. Accompanied by Lonnie Hillyer on trumpet, Hugh Lawson on piano, bassist Herman Wright, and drummer Frank Gant, Lateef was digging deeply into a new lyricism that was Eastern-tinged (the full flavor of that obsession would be issued two years later on Eastern Sounds and had been touched upon two years earlier on Other Sounds, released on New Jazz, where Lateef had used an argol as well as his sax and flute), modally informed, and distinctly light in texture -- with the exception of the deep, dark, arco work at the beginning of "Dopolous," by Wright. Lateef was already moving away from what most people would call jazz by this time, yet, as evidenced here, his music remained challenging and very accessible. This is meditative music with a stunningly rich rhythmic palette for how muted and edgeless it is. And, like John Cage or Morton Feldman, the absence of those edges was written in; it's not random. On tunes like the aforementioned, "Butter's Blues," or even "If You Could See Me Now," Lateef could take the blues and move it into shadowy territory, pulling out of the intervals and changes certain harmonic concepts to turn the music back on itself. If restraint got practiced in the dynamic range, the drama in the music would be all the greater because of the wider harmonic palette -- because it could be heard, not just felt. The result is a seamless, velvety, yet poignant take on the blues that echoed the tears referenced in the title of the album. And yet, the beauty, such a tender beauty, was so unspeakably fragile that the brass and reed instruments seemed to hover over the rhythm section and cut holes in the air like fine razors that can only be praised for the fineness of their slash. This was the beginning of Lateef's change in direction and, as a result, it deserves to be noted for that. However, it needs to be doubly noted for its truly magnificent sound, texture, playing, composition, and choice of tunes. ~ Thom Jurek cduniverse.

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Tracklist
1. Sea Breeze
2. Dopolous
3. Cry!-Tender
4. Butter's Blues
5. Yesterdays
6. Snow Is Green, The
7. If You Could See Me Now
8. Ecaps

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A diverse and thoughtful set of music is presented on THE CENTAUR AND THE PHOENIX including soulful blues numbers, lush ballads, and miscellaneous Eastern-influenced explorations. Highlights include Lateef's gorgeous flute work on the ballad "Summer Song," and the Latin-inflected, "Titora" which comes from a separate session with pianist Barry Harris, percussionists Roger Sanders and Gavin Masseaux, bassist Ernie Farrow, and drummer Lex Humphries. ~ cduniverse

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Tracklist
1. Revelation
2. Apathy
3. Ev'ry Day (I Fall in Love)
4. Centaur and the Phoenix, The
5. Iqbal
6. Summer Song
7. The Philanthropist
8. Jungle Fantasy - (bonus track)
9. Titora - (bonus track)

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Yusef Lateef's career has been one of the most varied in jazz. He arrived on the scene, ostensibly, in 1949 when he joined Dizzy Gillespie's big band becoming a bebop (and hard bop) tour-de-force. However, in 1961, when INTO SOMETHING was recorded, ... Full DescriptionLateef was beginning to make changes in his musical conception: changes that by the late '60s would establish him as one of jazz's finest experimenters. Joined by an all-star band including Barry Harris on piano, Herman Wright on bass and Elvin Jones on drums, INTO SOMETHING is a forward looking effort that combines both strong bop elements with a flair for the eclectic and the unusual. ~ cduniverse

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Tracklist
1. Rasheed
2. When You're Smiling
3. Water Pistol
4. You've Changed
5. I'll Remember April
6. Koko's Tune
7. P. Bouk