Yusef Lateef

[BlueMiles]

Looking for some talk on Lateef, a somewhat forgotten or unknown man. He was certainly forceful.

[BlueMiles]

I had not heard much Lateef at all, but just picked up "Three Faces of Yusef Lateef." It's a good place for hearing his work on tenor, flute, and oboe. His hard-driving tenor reminds me of Rollins; his flute work is outstading (getting some mention on the "flutist" thread); and is there anyone else who played jazz oboe?

Lateef can do serious blues, Ellingtonia, "eastern" stuff, Dvorak, pop songs, and a whole lot more.

He seems like a pretty remarkable player.

[BlueMiles]

Wow! He should also receive some attention for being in his 80's and still being musically active.

[LutherBlissett]

Lateef is still creative. Why his contemporary standing is not higher is a mystery ? Not only a sax great Isn't he the first to make oboe in jazz a solo instrument ? can't think of another , as a composer also he has written a symphony

Made some fine appearances with the Go Organic Orchestra 22-strong world jazz ensemble led by percussionist Adam Rudolph eg on CD "In the Garden"

[BlueMiles]

The oboe work here is certainly interesting.

The album ("3 Faces") also features Ron Carter on cello. You don't hear much cello either--and especially was not oftne found in the early 60's. I'm getting off track, but I know I heard Carter also play cello on a Mal Waldron album--and I think he may do so on a Dolphy album. It's curious he was into this near the start of his career.

[Frisco]

Yusef was one of the first jazz musicians that I was hearing in the early 70's. I ended up picking up all of his Impulse albums as ABC/Impulse was cutting them out at the time. They still remain some of my favorites. "A Flat G Flat and C" and "Psychicemotus" are just brilliant. Unfortunately, Impulse seems to feel that they should reissue one Lateef record on to CD every eight years or so. So, those new to his music should hear them all by the year 2028.

[Valerie]

Originally Posted by BlueMiles

Looking for some talk on Lateef, a somewhat forgotten or unknown man. He was certainly forceful.

did you ever read the novel he wrote? something like "midnight in the garden" - i think.

[clinthopson]

Originally Posted by LutherBlissett

Isn't he the first to make oboe in jazz a solo instrument ?

The guys at the Lighthouse were experimenting with every kind of woodwind back in the 50's they made one disc "Acquarium," where either Bud Shank or Bob Cooper plays some oboe.

That's the only other time I know where oboe was attempted until recently.

I live Yuseff's work with Cannonball and the things he recorded for Impulse in the 60's.

[Joe Milazzo]

Oh, right, the *other* Bill Evans...

Great player. Played some original and buring bop tenor with Dizzy Gillespie's Orchestra. Very forward-looking; brought new colors and fomal concerns to the music, sometimes borrowing from non-Western ethnic traditions, sometimes from Western "Classical composition". Instantly recognizable, kind of "foggy" tenor tone that has gotten more firm and idiosyncratic over the years. I think all of his music has something to offer, but, if pressed for favorites, I would choose

| the 50's Savoy recordings, particualrly with the fine Wilbur Harden on flugelhorn
| the Prestige date EASTERN SOUNDS, which has some of his finest oboe and flute work
| all of the Impulse! releases, especially 1984
| TEN YEARS HENCE, a great early 70's live set with Keeny Barron, Bob Cunningham and Tootie Heath
| two of his 90's encounters with other tenors: one with Ricky Ford (insane!) and one with Von Freeman (willfully odd)

And if you ever see a copy of that mid-60's Prestige record he made with A.K. Salim -- AFRO SOUL / DRUM ORGY (also featuring Johnny Coles and Pat Patrick) -- don't pass it up thinking it is more of the Afro-Cuban same. It is pretty out.

[Ron Thorne]

I've always dug Yusel Lateef and feel that he's a somewhat underrated musician. To learn more about this fascinating, complex man you can visit his website. Yusef has written several books, and I think Valerie is probably referring to Night in the Garden of Love.



On the subject of jazz oboe players, I think a pretty good argument could made that Paul McCandless (Oregon) has advanced the use of this instrument in some pretty remarkable ways.

[sonic1]

I was just listening to Eastern Sounds on the way to work today. I really like Lateef. I think of him as a great artist. I didn't think of him as unknown at all. But he does need more props.

[lazarus]

I´m a big fan of Lateef. The recordings I have been listenening to most are some of the Atlantic albums like "The Blue Y.L.", "The Complete Y.L." and The Diverse Y.L.".
I´m also a fan of the Adderley recordings and Impulse albums. The only Prestige album I have heard is "Eastern Sounds" but I agree that it´s a very good one too.

[Richardo Caerleoni]

Yusef Lateef


I think the Savoy recodings - with Curtis Fuller and with Wilber Hardin( he's due for a re-evaluation?)...and "Live at Peps" - Impulse, are my pick...plus the work with Mingus.

There is a story by Sy Johnson - told by him with laughter - of him turning up to play his gig with Mingus - only to find the piano had been taken off the stage and Yusef on the stand. When he confronted Mingus (a brave thing to do!), Mingus said, "Hell, if you could hire Yusef Lateef or YOU... what would you do?)

RC.

b. William Evans, 9 October 1920, Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA. Raised in Detroit, Michigan, Lateef began playing tenor saxophone in his late teens. In New York in the mid-40s he played in bands led by Lucky Millinder, Roy Eldridge and other leading jazz musicians of the swing era, but later in the decade, in Chicago, he played with Dizzy Gillespie. Thereafter, his work was consciously modern in style. In the mid-50s he adopted the Muslim faith and took the name by which he is now known. He led several small bands during this period and also began to play flute.

At the end of the decade he was again in New York, this time working with leading modernists amongst whom were Charles Mingus and Cannonball Adderley. He also led his own groups for public performance and record dates. In the 70s and 80s Lateef extended the number of instruments upon which he performed, now including the oboe and bassoon and also a wide range of similar Asian and African reeds. He revealed himself as a gifted performer on all these instruments and later recordings showed an increasing interest in various ethnic musical forms, sometimes - not always - fused with jazz, and crossing over into new age mood music.

In addition to his performing career, he has taught music and has lately become proficient as a writer and painter. From the early 90s he has recorded on his own YAL label, often in collaboration with Adam Rudolph.

DISCOGRAPHY: The Sounds Of Yusef (Prestige 1957)***, Jazz Mood (Savoy 1957)****, Jazz For The Thinker (Savoy 1957)****, Prayer To The East (Savoy 1957)****, Jazz And The Sound Of Nature (Savoy 1957)***, The Dreamer (Savoy 1958)***, The Fabric Of Jazz (Savoy 1958)***, Before Dawn (Verve 1958)***, Live At Cranbrook (Argo 1959)***, Other Sounds reissued as Expressions (New Jazz/Prestige 1959)****, Cry! Tender (New Jazz 1960)****, Three Faces Of Yusef Lateef (Riverside 1960)****, The Centaur And The Phoenix (Riverside 1960)****, Eastern Sounds (Moodsville 1961)****, Into Something (New Jazz 1962)****, Lost In Sound (Charlie Parker 1962)***, Jazz Around The World (Impulse! 1963)****, Live At Pep's (Impulse! 1964)****, 1984 (Impulse! 1965)****, Yusef! (Delmark 1965)***, Psychicemotus (Impulse! 1966)***, A Flat, G Flat And C (Impulse! 1966)***, The Golden Flute (Impulse! 1966)****, Yusef Lateef Plays For Lovers (Prestige 1967)***, The Blue Yusef Lateef (Atlantic 1969)***, Yusef Lateef's Detroit (Atlantic 1969)**, The Diverse Yusef Lateef (Atlantic 1970)***, Suite 16 (Atlantic 1971)***, Part Of The Search (Atlantic 1972)***, The Gentle Giant (Atlantic 1974)***, Ten Years Hence (Atlantic 1975)****, The Doctor Is In.

..And Out (Atlantic 1976)**, Autophysiopsychic (CTI 1976)***, The Live Session 1964 recording (ABC/Impulse! 1978)****, In A Temple Garden (CTI 1979)***, In Nigeria (Landmark 1984)***, Yusef Lateef's Little Symphony (Atlantic 1988)***, Concerto For Yusef Lateef (Atlantic 1988)**, Nocturnes (Atlantic 1989)***, Meditations (Atlantic 1990)**, Heart Vision (YAL 1992)***, Tenors Of Yusef Lateef And Archie Shepp (YAL 1992)***, Tenors Of Yusef Lateef & Von Freeman (YAL 1992)***, Yusef Lateef Plays Ballads (YAL 1993)***, Yusef Lateef Tenors Featuring Rene McLean (YAL 1993)***, Woodwinds (YAL 1993)***, Metamorphosis (YAL 1994)**, Claiming Open Spaces (YAL 1994)**, Tenors Of Yusef Lateef & Ricky Ford (YAL 1994)***, Cantata (YAL 1994)***, Suite Life (YAL 1995)**, Full Circle (YAL 1996)**, Earth And Sky (YAL 1997)**, CHNOPSGold And Soul (YAL 1997)**, with Adam Rudolph The World At Peace: Music For 12 Nations (YAL/Meta 1996)***, The Man With The Big Front Yard (32 Jazz 1998)***, with Rudolph Live In Seattle (YAL/Meta 1999)***, with Rudolph Beyond The Sky (YAL/Meta 2000)***.
COMPILATIONS: Every Village Has A Song 1949-76 recordings (Rhino/Atlantic)****, Re-Evaluations: The Impulse! Years 1963-66 recordings (Impulse!)****, The Complete Yusef Lateef (Atlantic 1968)****, Contemplation (Charly 2002)****.

[A. Kingstone]

Who else do you know who plays jazz balloon?





















.

[ribot_for_president]

I'm a big fan of the The Man With the Big Front Yard compilation on (I think) 32Jazz.

[sashabur]

Do you know that Lateef played with Sun Ra and Hobart Dotson in Eugene Wright's Dukes of Swing in the 40s? They even recorded a few sides together with this group.

[steve(thelil)]

There was a great poster awhile back (it may even have been pre jazz-corner) who I think went by the name of Carlton: alljazzalltime who used to constantly talk about how much he loved Live at Pep's. So I bought it and it is a killer. The first tune is weird in a good and spooky way, if I recall.

[relyles]

Not yet discussed, but IMO worth mentioning are the two tenor recordings he did on his own Yal label with Von Freeman, Ricky Ford, Archie Shepp and Rene McLean. Some serious blowing and interesting interaction on all those that I have heard so far.

[Noj]

My favorites have already been mentioned, but I also like Yusef Lateef's Detroit. I would also rate The Doctor Is In...And Out much higher than the unlistenable Autophysiopsychic.

[Richardo Caerleoni]

A FIRESIDE CHAT WITH YUSEF LATEEF [Jazz Weekly]
Yusef Lateef is an artist in the purest form of the word. I have long been a fan of Lateef's playing from his Riverside dates like The Three Faces of Yusef Lateef, to his Prestige works like Eastern Sounds and Into Something, on through to his Impulse! sessions like Live at Pep's, to his Atlantic tenure with albums like Part of the Search, and more recently with his own YAL label. I had always wondered why more magazines did not cover Lateef of late. Perhaps, they aren't in the know or perhaps, they don't know any better. So I bring him to you, unedited and in his own words.


YUSEF LATEEF: First of all, Fred, in this interview, I request that you don't refer to me as a jazz musician. My music is jazz.


FRED JUNG: Let's start from the beginning.

YUSEF LATEEF: I started in high school with a teacher there. I also took lessons at the Conservatory of Music in Detroit. Detroit was very motivating. There were a lot of local people who inspired me like Kenny Burrell, Paul Chambers, Roy Brooks, Donald Byrd, etc.


FJ: What was the music of the day?

YUSEF LATEEF: Well, the big bands like Count Basie and Earl Hines and Tiny Bradshaw. I played in a local big band, Lucky Millinder. I was also playing with a combo, a quintet. It paid what was the status quo at the time.


FJ: When did you begin to include the flute into your repertoire?

YUSEF LATEEF: I started to study the flute in 1951. The flute has been utilized by African-American musicians as far back as the early Twenties. If you take a look at some of the old pictures of Chick Webb, then you will see the flute right there on the bandstand among the woodwinds.


FJ: You also presented the oboe and the bassoon, not traditionally considered in improvised music, in performances.

YUSEF LATEEF: Well, in high school, my teacher tried to get me to play the oboe and later on, I reflected on that and then I took him up on it. After I started to record, I didn't want to reinvent the wheel with each album, so then I studied the bassoon and included it as well as some miscellaneous instruments like Japanese flute and then I began to make flutes to enhance the canvas of my expression.


FJ: That kind of dedication and sacrifice to your art seems like something of another era these days.

YUSEF LATEEF: Well, oboists make their reeds so it is nothing new in a sense. It is just another part of musical expression.


FJ: When did you move to New York?

YUSEF LATEEF: January 1960.


FJ: Why did you wait so long?

YUSEF LATEEF: Because I was doing well in Detroit. For five years I had a steady job and I was recording.


FJ: What were your initial impressions of the Big Apple?

YUSEF LATEEF: It was a different scene, a new environment. A lot of people who I respected were there.


FJ: Give me your thoughts on your time with Charles Mingus.

YUSEF LATEEF: As a player, I think he was excellent. He was a master bassist and as a composer, he was a composer of large magnitude you will. He inspired me by his ability and his concepts were so original, they inspired me.


FJ: Why is it you are not acknowledged for the wealth of compositions you have penned?

YUSEF LATEEF: As you say, I am not given recognition. I don't know why. Maybe it doesn't affect them. They don't understand the aesthetic of my music and if that is the case then they don't appreciate it. I have met a lot of people who do appreciate what I do.


FJ: People should take a listen to Live at Pep's.

YUSEF LATEEF: Yeah, it was with Richard Williams, James Black, Mike Nock, and Ernie Farrow.


FJ: Impulse! recently reissued the second volume.

YUSEF LATEEF: Yes, they have. I am flattered by them re-releasing it.


FJ: You play a bamboo flute on the recording.

YUSEF LATEEF: One I made, yes. It took a couple of hours, I think.


FJ: You make it sound almost commonplace.

YUSEF LATEEF: (Laughing) Well, I had been making them for a while.

FJ: You did some very important work on the Atlantic label as well. I am hoping I can generate enough buzz to get the reissue arm of the label, Rhino, to issue a box set of your material. I know I have Joel Dorn's support.

YUSEF LATEEF: (Laughing) Yeah, OK. We had fine experiences in putting albums together.


FJ: What prompted you to form your own label (YAL)?

YUSEF LATEEF: Because, well, no one asked me to record for them, so I just started my own label after my return from Africa. I did record. I won a Grammy after I came from Africa. Atlantic extended me a three year contract and after that, no one made any offers, so I started my own label.


FJ: Why did you journey to Africa?

YUSEF LATEEF: I did research there at the Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Nigeria into the Fulani flute, which is called the sarewa. I did that and I also taught research methodology to Nigerian cultural offices. I had a third duty. I interacted with the drama and African musicians formulating convocational plays and things of that nature. In fact, we were invited to a festival of nations in Bulgaria and we took a play that was put together called Queen Amina, based on the real life queen who lived in northern Nigeria about three hundred years ago. I spent four years in Africa.


FJ: Were you concerned that leaving at the height of your popular appeal might reflect negatively on your marketable appeal?

YUSEF LATEEF: No, no, I think it was advantageous to be exposed to another culture, that particular culture. I learned a great deal and it helped reform my concepts and my values and my approaches to music.


FJ: What are some of those values?

YUSEF LATEEF: Well, the value of thinking, of original expression if you will, utilizing that which is in the environment, like the bamboo flutes for example. Bamboo grows and so why shouldn't I make a flute out of it. I learned things through observation, through mental construction. For example, a Nigerian balafone is not constructed like the marimba of Eastern Europe or what we have in America. For example, the lowest note may be in the middle of the instrument as opposed to the far left, which taught me that there are other ways to make instruments. For example, in America, they teach us in music school that to express sorrow, you use minor chords. But in Nigeria, to express sorrow, they use chordal chords. We put on Queen Amina and there was a chorus in the background to express the feelings that we are trying to project to the audience when Queen Amina was assassinated and I had given them a minor chord to articulate and it evolved from a minor chord into a chordal chord each rehearsal and so I just let it stay that way because that was expressing grief to them. I learned about attitudes in terms of what kinds of sounds can express feelings, which I found to be quite different than I had found here in America.


FJ: What were some of the challenges you encountered in running your own label?

YUSEF LATEEF: Finding distributors, that was the most difficult thing. I have about twenty-two CDs that I have produced. North Country is the distributor and they can even contact me directly at PO Box 799, YAL Records, Amherst, MA.


FJ: This year marks your eightieth birthday.

YUSEF LATEEF: Next month, yes.


FJ: There should be a celebration of the work you have done in those years. It troubles me that there is not. This country has a good deal to learn about appreciating its artists.

YUSEF LATEEF: Thank you, Fred. Well, I do have one recording with my colleague, Adam Rudolph. We just finished mastering it. We performed it this past February at Lincoln Center. It is music for eight musicians and the name of this CD is Beyond the Sky. We are looking forward to releasing that in the next few weeks. That is one project. For some time, I also released a CD a couple of months ago called A Gift and it is based on the approach to intervallic expression. There are certain groups who play a liner line that exists on a major third and a minor second. That is a distinct kind of a melodic sound. Also, I have been involved in what I can entophyte composition. You will find this in some of my recent releases. As you know, Fred, an entophyte is something that deals with inside something else, you find this function in botany. I came across this as a result of auditing a botany class at the university here. Now, I applied this concept to the vertical chords. For example, if I had a chord that had a minor second and an augmented fourth and a major third between the intervals that exist in the chord, the notes in the chord as they move in the interim fashion, they would only move in one of those three intervals at different times. That is what I call entophyte compositions and I have used that in some of my recent compositions. I think it is a natural kind of evolution.


FJ: Yet another progression in your musical vision.

YUSEF LATEEF: You need to or it becomes boring to do the same thing. It is like walking without moving forward in the same footsteps.


FJ: It must never get boring being Yusef Lateef.

YUSEF LATEEF: Well, if I keep at it. Life itself is an interesting thing, Fred. Life included thinking and it is such a pleasure to think of new ways to do things and to express yourself. That is the beauty that you feel and that you see through observation of nature for example. So you try to express some type of beauty through your music. I am sure that it is a privilege and it is a gift to be alive and try to offer something to culture. You said it, Fred. I am enjoying it. We don't know how long we will have this opportunity and so I am enjoying it. It is exciting.


FJ: If there is justice in the world, here's to another eighty years, sir.

YUSEF LATEEF: Thank you so much. I am honored that you chose to talk to me.


FJ: It is my honor.

[xquisit]

Thank you for that wonderful interview. I remember Yusef Lateef along with Leon Thomas, Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, Herbie Hancock, Alice Coltrane and many other fine artist who offered a spiritual meditative sound.

Hopefully, there will be a revival of the 70's spiritual movement in jazz.


x

[Richardo Caerleoni]

Originally Posted by xquisit

Thank you for that wonderful interview. I remember Yusef Lateef along with Leon Thomas, Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, Herbie Hancock, Alice Coltrane and many other fine artist who offered a spiritual meditative sound.

Hopefully, there will be a revival of the 70's spiritual movement in jazz.


x

No problem...There is a glorious interview with him on BBC (UK) R3 2004 - maybe on line - where he explains his acadamic interests...a hell of a bright guy. A "hero" of mine.

RC....Ck/out "Yusef's Mood" on Savoy...out of Stitt and Dexter...but a classic!... along with "Peps" !

[chuckyd4]

Spinning Before Dawn at the moment, one of those sessions released a few years back in Verve's limited edition program. It's in his earlier, straight-ahead phase (very similar to the Savoy sessions), but a real gem IMHO. Curtis Fuller is also on here, and the two of them really burn, trading some fours etc.

I met him very briefly at last year's IAJE conference, and he was incredibly warm and welcoming, despite my awkward attempts to explain how much I love his music. How strange that a *genius* like him had to man his own booth to sell his CDs and videos, but also what a testament to his strength of purpose.

And I love his insistence on not being called a "jazz musician". I agree!

[shrugs]

have any of the Impulse lp's been released on cd here in the US?
I am talking about Golden Flute, A Flat etc

[Ron Thorne]

shrugs, Golden Flute is available at CD Universe for $9.49. A Flat, G Flat and C seems to be unavailable on CD. I found several vinyl copies, however.

I also noted that the CD version of his (highly-rated) 1st Atlantic date, The Complete Yusef Lateef is also available at CD Universe for $9.75.

NOTES

Personnel: Yusef Lateef (vocals, alto & tenor saxophones, flute, oboe); Hugh Lawson (piano); Cecil McBee (bass0: Roy Brooks (drums). Originally released on Atlantic (1499). Includes liner notes by Sonny Buxton.Originally released in 1968. Yusef Lateefs first album for Atlantic features the accomplished artist on flute, tenor, alto and oboe on the tunes 'In The Evening', 'Brother' and the traditional 'Rosalie'.

Hope this helps.

[John P. Cooper]

My God!

He is 85 years old now!!!!!

[Frisco]

Originally Posted by shrugs

have any of the Impulse lp's been released on cd here in the US?
I am talking about Golden Flute, A Flat etc

I think the Impulses that remain unissued on CD are "A Flat G Flat and C", "1984", and "Jazz Round the World". I may be wrong though. Note, they just reissued "Psychicemotus".

[Pete C]

Originally Posted by xquisit

Hopefully, there will be a revival of the 70's spiritual movement in jazz.

Well, some of that music is great in spite of the corny "spiritual" trappings. I'll pass on the revival.

[Bill Barton]

In terms of recordings, please don't overlook the latter-day material on YAL, particularly the series: "Tenors of..." - the one with Von Freeman is a gas. This came out in the early 1990s (1992? 1993?).

[RedJazz]

The instrumentation and orchestrations for the whole of Centaur and the Phoenix are quite interesting. The title track is sort of Third Streamy and most of the other tracks anticipate the unorthodox instrumentations of the later work of Gil Evans and some of Mingus's stuff. Perhaps Sun Ra too, but except for the title track generally more swinging.

There was a lot of studio based experimentation with the instrumentation of little big bands in that period. For example Johnny Griffin's Big Soul Band for Riverside, the Art Pepper + 11 sesssions, the Chet Baker Big Band, Trane's Africa Brass album, Donald Byrd's work with brass and vocal choirs, etc.