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Jazz Articles about Yusef Lateef
Yusef Lateef: Psychicemotus
by Norman Weinstein
This is a welcome reissue of one of a series of fine Impulse! albums by multi-instrumentalist Yusef Lateef that have never taken their deserved place among the major recordings of the '60s. I suspect part of the reason for their neglect has to do with the image, helped by both the Impulse!, and later Atlantic labels, in portraying Lateef as a purveyor of hopelessly arcane musical exotica. The weird title of this album doesn't help any more than the 2005 ...
read moreYusef Lateef: Jazz 'Round the World
by C. Andrew Hovan
Yusef Lateef Jazz 'Round the World Impulse! 1963With a recent article in JazzTimes covering the history of Impulse Records and the role that prime mover John Coltrane made in securing the label's place in history, it occurred to me that there are still holes in the catalog's reissue program. Aside from Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders, both heavily caught up in Coltrane's trajectory, multi-instrumentalist Yusef Lateef was a vital member of the ...
read moreYusef Lateef: The Golden Flute
by David Rickert
It’s a shame that Yusef Lateef is relegated to the second tier of jazz musicians, left as an artist who is known more for his work as a sideman. His abilities as a multi-instrumentalist place him a category with Roland Kirk, yet with none of the acclaim. It’s true that on his Atlantic releases Lateef was saddled with inferior material, but his earlier recordings are adventurous, melodic, and quite satisfying. The Golden Flute is a marvelous recording from 1966 that ...
read moreYusef Lateef/Adam Rudolph-Go: Organic Orchestra: In the Garden
by Rex Butters
Adam Rudolph’s third recording with the Go:Organic Orchestra finds the master percussionist in collaboration with longtime friend and associate, jazz legend Yusef Lateef. The recording documents a performance at Venice’s Electric Lodge, a homebase for Rudolph. Uniting 22 of our town’s most interesting musicians including Emily Hay, Bennie Maupin, Sara Schoenbeck, Chris Heenan, Cory Wright, Alex Cline, and Harris Eisenstadt, In the Garden features performances from the entire orchestra as well as moving duets by Rudolph and Lateef. The two ...
read moreYusuf Lateef: The Blue Lateef
by AAJ Staff
Let me start out by saying this is one fine, tasty disc. For those unfamiliar with Lateef’s work, he is a multi-reedist, composer, arranger who has been working from at least the 1950s and is still going strong, making the textures of music richer for all. This is significant; Lateef is the one who brought the world into jazz, a ground breaker who used ancient and popular forms to make all kinds of strong music. There were some lapses, of ...
read moreYusek Lateef/Adam Rudolph: Beyond The Sky
by Mark Corroto
Like many a jazz listener, I roll my eyes and flip radio stations when the announcer calls out the next tune as ‘world music.’ I do this because what every jazz fan knows is all music is world music, and jazz is the ultimate synthesis of the world’s music. Many of today’s ‘world music’ artists are as original/creative as those $20 Rolex watches sold downtown. The 1970s disease of mediocrity called “fusion” plagues them. This infection allowed for the rise ...
read moreYusef Lateef: The Last Savoy Sessions
by AAJ Staff
Savoy Jazz is taking its re-issues seriously, and so is Orrin Keepnews, the re-issue producer. With taste, dedication, craftsmanship, attention to detail, and style, Savoy recently has released actually an astounding and seemingly uninterrupted series of recordings from Savoy's heyday. The jazz world is the better for the re-releases, allowing us to investigate the nooks and crannies of earlier jazz work and to revise our assumptions and to add to our knowledge and to acknowledge various influences that heretofore may ...
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