Yusef Lateef

Featuring: Featuring: Yusef Lateef (ts, fl, argol, scraped gourd, tambourine, Indian reed whistle, vcl), Curtis Fuller (tb, tambourine, Turkish finger cymbals), Wilbur Harden (flgh, tambourine, cow bell, balloon), Hugh Lawson (p, metalphone, ocarina, cow bells, Turk

4CD Set, 32 page book-let
Digitally Remastered 24-BIT / 96 kHz

In 1950, after a year on tour with Dizzy Gillespie’s band, Yusef Lateef returned to Detroit, the city where he had grown up as a jazz musician. With his powerfully preaching tenor sax tone and fluent, driving style he established himself as an influential presence in the Motor City scene, forming his own quintet in 1955. He made his first recordings as a leader in 1957, a productive year for him, as this gripping 4-CD set reveals. On it he plays tenor and flute with a compelling directness and overpowering honesty, surrounded by a nucleus of Detroiters like Curtis Fuller, Ernie Farrow, Louis Hayes, Oliver Jackson, Wilbur Harden and, especially, Hugh Lawson, whose rolling, two-handed piano is as exciting in solo as it is in his intelligent comping. The entire group plays in inspired fashion, speaking authoritatively for the Detroit jazz scene.

Tracklisting:

CD 1:

01. Beauregard
02. O’Blues
03. Happyology
04. Midday
05. Polarity
06. Ameena
07. Space
08. Metaphor
09. Morning
10. The Beginning

CD 2:

01. G. Bouk
02. Blues In Space
03. Yusef’s Mood
04. Passion
05. Love Is Eternal
06. Pike’s Peak
07. Open Strings
08. Before Dawn
09. Twenty Five Minute Blues
10. Chang Chang Chang
11. Constellation
12. Seulb
13. Sounds Of Nature

CD 3:

01. Song Of Delilah
02. 8540 Twelfth Street
03. I Got It Bad And That Ain’t Good
04. Check Blues
05. Prayer To The East
06. A Night In Tunisia
07. Lover Man
08. Endura
09. Love Dance
10. Sram
11. Gypsy Arab

CD 4:

01. Playful Flute
02. Taboo
03. Ecaps
04. All Alone
05. Anastasia
06. Love And Humour
07. Buckingham
08. Lambert’s Point
09. Meditation
10. Mahaba
11. Minor Mood
12. Take The “A” Train

The hardcore of these sessions were recorded by Rudy Van Gelder in Hackensack, New Jersey
Note: In addition to the standard jazz instrumentation, some compositions, notably for the time, included several near-Eastern ethnic instruments to produce a remarkable blend of oriental harmonies, sounds and effects, superimposed on wailing jazz without compromising its unity or quality. These include the rebob, earth board, argol, tambourine, Chinese gong, finger cymbals, scraped gourd, bells, and other devices, among them a balloon and a 7-up bottle to achieve some uniquely arresting effects.
More details and information in the booklet !!