Yusef Lateef: Alight Upon the Lake: Live at the Jazz Showcase

One of the legendary figures of Detroit jazz, Yusef Lateef experienced a truly distinctive path of artistic development, with a trajectory which took him from swing, bebop and R&B in the 1940s and 1950s through a deep immersion in world music, funk and classical idioms during the 1960s and beyond. Somehow incorporating all of these disparate strands and more, Resonance Records' three-disc extravaganza, Alight Upon the Lake, gives us a thorough glimpse of Lateef's multifaceted identity in the company of one of his strongest bands, during a show at Chicago's Jazz Showcase in 1975.

Assisted by pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Bob Cunningham and drummer Albert Tootie Heath, Lateef surges from the opening with "The Untitled," a veritable smorgasbord of jazz styles which begins with a lightning-fast bop segment featuring his tempestuous tenor sax. But the peripatetic, 29-minute piece eventually transitions into a more mystical vein, with Lateef taking the music in a reflective direction with Middle Eastern overtones before Cunningham's driving bass ostinato ushers in a spirited funk segment. Barron takes over from there, and as a pianist with multi-stylistic tendencies almost as broad as Lateef's, he dazzles with a lengthy solo which is both expressionistic and technically stunning, as Cunningham's arco accompanies him into a journey with pianistic nuances galore, from fiery flourishes to classically-inflected restraint, and ending with a rhythmically infectious South African-flavored segment before the band re-emerges to take the piece out to its frantic conclusion. And that is just the first of the album's sprawling nine cuts.

There are many highlights here, from the nimble pyrotechnics of "Mutually Exclusive," with Lateef's soaring tenor flights reminiscent of John Coltrane's "sheets of sound" period, to "I Remember Webster," Lateef's heartfelt dedication to Ben Webster, which displays his deep sensitivity and rich sonority to superb effect. Throughout, the evident camaraderie experienced by the four musicians is easily heard, as a band that was first assembled in 1971 reveals the advantages of their shared experience in navigating the twists and turns of the expansive repertoire.

Admittedly, not all of the album's stylistic excursions will thrill all listeners. "Opus 1 & 2" might be the best example, a thirty-minute track in which Lateef's spiritual yearnings on flute threaten to stagnate, despite Cunningham's intriguing arco technique and Barron's thoughtful accompaniment. The slowly-percolating funk that follows on the back half of the piece similarly lacks energy. And Lateef's poetic sensibilities on "Golden Goddess" might leave something to be desired as well, with a recitation provided either by Cunningham or Heath, which does little to enhance the otherwise solid funk-inspired jazz which follows it.

The last two tracks more than make up for these shortcomings, however, as Lateef reaches back to his roots on "Straighten Up and Fly Right," taking Nat King Cole's R&B hit and almost bringing the house down with an endless series of high-voltage riffs. He then completes the demolition job with "Yusef's Mood," with the very vocal crowd becoming fully a part of the recording, reveling in the cut's boogie-woogie vibe and goading Lateef all the way to the concert's emphatic finish line, as his frenetic wails send the audience home both happy and exhilarated.