Yusef LATEEF - Live New York 2007

Yusef LATEEF - Live New York 2007
Motor City Jazz, Rose Hall NY.
Broadcast date: 2007-04-20
Bootleg
(Who Sent Me This??)

Jazz

A Motor City juggernaut - Ron Carter, Geri Allen, Marcus Belgrave, Curtis Fuller, Charles McPherson, Ali Jackson, and Yusef Lateef - drives the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra on a soundtrack from Detroit to New York. Scenic moments include  Barry Harris' bouncing "Minor Situation," and Lateef's epic suite "Morning Trilogy."
**
Wynton Marsalis- Trumpet
Sean Jones- Trumpet
Ryan Kaiser- Trumpet
Marcus Printemp- Trumpet
Dan Nimmer- Piano
Ali Jackson, Jr.- Drums
Ron Carter- Bass
Walter Blanding- Saxophone
Curtis Fuller- Trombone
Yusef Lateef- Tenor Sax, Woodwinds
Charles McPherson- Alto Sax
Marcus Belgrave- Trumpet
Geri Allen- Piano
Ted Nash- Alto Sax
**

01.Long Green 7:33
02.Deep Passion 4:40
03.Ala Mode 8:10
04.Minor Situation 4:17
05.Announcer/Interview 1:58
06.Morning Trilogy 17:13
07.For Toddler's Only 4:43
**

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Yusef LATEEF with Roscoe Mitchell, Douglas Ewart and Adam Rudolph - Live in Minneapolis 2008

Yusef LATEEF with Roscoe Mitchell, Douglas Ewart and Adam Rudolph - Live in Minneapolis 2008
Walker Art Center
McGuire Theater
Minneapolis, MN
6 December 2008
All Credits Go To *inconstant sol*

Jazz

One of the first jazz musicians to incorporate global traditions into his compositions and selection of instruments, 87-year-old Yusef Lateef has not appeared in the Twin Cities in over a decade. Playing a wide array of wind instruments, including tenor saxophone, flute, oboe, bamboo flute, shanai, shofar, argol, sarewa and Taiwan koto, the Grammy-winning Lateef has pioneered the African American tradition of autophysiopsychic music — that which comes from one’s spiritual, physical and emotional self. On December 6th at 8 pm, Lateef and fellow AACM cohorts Douglas Ewart and Roscoe Mitchell, with percussionist Adam Rudolph, perform at the McGuire Theater of the Walker Art Center as part of the Northrop Jazz Season.
Born William Emanuel Huddleston in Chattanooga, TN, Yusef Lateef moved to Detroit as a young child and grew up surrounded by its many jazz influences, forming relationships with many musicians in the area including Milt Jackson, Tommy Flanagan, Barry Harris, Paul Chambers, Donald Byrd, the Jones brothers (Hank, Thad and Elvin), Kenny Burrell, Lucky Thompson and Matthew Rucker. He played tenor in high school, and later with the swing bands of Hartley Toots, Hot Lips Page, Roy Eldridge, Herbie Fields and Lucky Millender before joining Dizzy Gillespie’s Orchestra in 1949. He converted to Islam in the mid-50s and continued music studies on flute and oboe as well as touring with Charles Mingus, Cannonball Adderley, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and Babatunde Olatunji in the 1960s. In the early 1980s he spent a few years studying the Fulani flute (sarewa) in Nigeria. Throughout his career, he has appeared on hundreds of recordings and composed works for small ensembles and full orchestras. His extended works have been performed by the WDR (Cologne), NDR (Hamburg), Atlanta, Augusta and Detroit Symphony Orchestras and the Symphony of the New World. His recording of "Yusef Lateef’s Little Symphony," on which he performed all the parts, received a Grammy Award in 1987. Lateef has published a novella and set of short stories, and has taught at the University of Massachusetts. He founded Yal Records and Fana Music.

At the Walker Art Center, Lateef will join another pair of multi-instrumentalists and former cohorts at the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), Douglas Ewart and Roscoe Mitchell. Based for many years in Minneapolis, Jamaica native Douglas Ewart was fascinated by experiments with materials to create sound as a youngster. He emigrated to the U.S. in his teens, ultimately studying music at the AACM, which he later served as president. Known for his design and production of a wide variety of wind and percussion instruments, Ewart is also celebrated for his clothing designs. Ewart has been involved in a diverse array of musical projects, typically involving his many flutes, digeridoos, saxophones and clarinets. Considered a key figure of the avant garde movement, Chicago native Roscoe Mitchell played saxophone and clarinet as a youth and performed with an Army band while in the service, playing alongside Albert Ayler and Rubin Cooper. After he returned to Chicago, Mitchell joined forces with fellow saxophonists Malachai Favors, Joseph Harmin, Henry Threadgill and Anthony Braxton. He played in Muhal Richard Abrams Experimental Band in the 1960s. An early member of the AACM, Mitchell played with the reconfigured Art Ensemble of Chicago, and was named Darius Milhaud Chair of Composition at Mills College in Oakland, CA in 2007.

Another frequent Lateef collaborator, percussionist Adam Rudolph, will round out the quartet. From Chicago, Rudolph first played with Lateef in 1988 and has recorded 14 albums with the saxophonist. Over his career, he has developed the use of the hand drums in experimental music, and has played with Sam Rivers, Pharaoh Sanders, L. Shankar, Fred Anderson, Don Cherry, Jon Hassel, Wadada Leo Smith, and Omar Sosa.
By Andrea Canter.
**
Yusef Lateef- tenor sax, flute, oboe, recitation on encore
Roscoe Mitchell- alto & soprano sax, flute, percussion
Douglas Ewart- alto sax, contra bass clarinet, flute
Adam Rudolph- gimbri, piano, percussion, voice

Part 1
01. (9:53)  [AR,gimbri,voc solo]
02. (18:00) [YL,fl/RM,ss/DE,contra-bcl/AR,perc]
03. (49:31) [YL,ts,fl,voc/RM,as,ss,fl/DE,as,fl/AR,perc,p]

Part 2
01. (22:40) [YL,ts,fl,voc/RM,as,ss/DE,as/AR,p,perc]
02. (12:47) [YL,ob,voc/RM,as/DE,ss,fl/AR,perc]
**

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Yusef LATEEF - The Centaur And The Phoenix 1960

Yusef LATEEF - The Centaur And The Phoenix  1960
RLP 9337
Recorded in October 1960 and June 1961.

Jazz

An under-appreciated jazz innovator, Yusef Lateef made many strides with regard to instrumentation in jazz. One of the few jazz oboe and bassoon players, Lateef also introduced such instruments as the argol (a double clarinet that resembles a bassoon) and the shanai (a type of oboe) into the jazz setting. However, his main instruments were the tenor saxophone and the flute. On this 1961 record date, the inventive Lateef surrounds himself with a horn section that features, among others, trumpet great Clark Terry and trombonist Curtis Fuller. A bassoonist by the name of Josea Taylor is also heard here and the rhythm section is lead by the noted pianist and composer, Joe Zawinul.

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.
**
From his first explosion of recordings in the mid-'50s, Yusef Lateef was a player who was always gently stretching the boundaries of his music to absorb techniques, new rhythms, and new influences from Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The Centaur and the Phoenix, however, takes the risks and the innovations that Lateef was known for, and expands them in a number of different directions all at once, leading to an album that bursts with new ideas and textures, while remaining accessible, and above all, beautiful. Lateef seems eager here to take the next step musically by breaking the mold of his previous albums. While he is a gifted composer, only a third of the songs featured here are his work: the rhythm-driven flute showcase "Apathy," the gentle, nocturnal tribute to his daughter "Iqbal" and the tone poem "The Philanthropist." The best of the rest come from Kenny Barron, who was only 17 at the time, and Charles Mills, a contemporary classical composer who drew the album's self-titled highlight from two of his symphonies, the first paying tribute to Crazy Horse and the other to Charlie Parker. Providing the structure and textures needed for these intricate compositions was Lateef's largest ensemble to date. Accustomed to working in a small-group format, he makes managing a band of nine sidemen seem easy. Several Lateef regulars are here, including Barry Harris, Richard Williams, and Ernie Farrow, but the inclusion of forward-thinking musicians like Joe Zawinul also help take this album to a higher level. The greatest miracle of this recording, however, is the balance that Lateef achieves with this large group — they are always an asset, never a distraction, and even as they come on strong and powerful on songs like "Apathy," or Barron's arrangement of "Ev'ry Day (I Fall in Love)" he remains in charge, somehow making his delicate flute (or oboe, tenor sax or argol) rise above it all, spilling out brightness, grace and joy.
By Stacia Proefrock. AMG. 
**
Bass- Ben Tucker
Bassoon- Josea Taylor
Drums- Lex Humphries 
Piano- Joe Zawinul
Saxophone [Baritone]- Tate Houston
Saxophone [Tenor], Oboe, Flute [Arghul]- Yusef Lateef
Trombone- Curtis Fuller
Trumpet- Clark Terry , Richard Williams
**
A1. Revelation 5:53   
    Composed By - Barron
A2. Apathy 5:20 
    Composed By - Yusef Lateef 
A3. Ev'ry Day (I Fall In Love) 6:55 
    Arranged By - Kenneth Barron
    Composed By - Kahal* , Fain* 
B1. The Centaur And The Phoenix 5:33 
    Composed By - Charles Mills 
B2. Iqbal 4:48 
    Composed By - Yusef Lateef 
B3. Summer Song 5:22 
    Composed By - Charles Mills 
B4. The Philanthropist 3:56 
    Composed By - Yusef Lateef 
**

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Yusef LATEEF - The African-American Epic Suite For Quintet & Orchestra 1996

Yusef LATEEF - The African-American Epic Suite For Quintet & Orchestra 1996

Jazz

When you've paid your dues like Yusef Lateef they call you Doctor.  They also let you do whatever the hell you want with an orchestra.   So, as people like Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus did before him, Lateef made an epic suite.  Lateef's quintet play more than enough instruments for an orchestra by themselves.  You can hear instruments from 6 of the 7 continents of the world here.  If anyone actually lived in Antarctica and had invented an instrument, it most certainly would have appeared on The African-American Epic Suite.  Maybe he could have hugged a penguin and recorded the sound it made?

It all adds up to incredibly emotional music with spurts of turmoil.  Duke Ellington's Far East Suite and Charles Mingus' The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady are still in a class all their own though.  For now, Lateef will just have to remain the most incredible musician I've had the pleasure of hearing.
**
Yusef Lateef- Tenor Saxaphone, Germanic Flute, Alto Flute, Indian Flute, Bamboo Flutes, Indian temple Flute, Moan Flute, Algaita, Shannie
Cologne Radio Orchestra (Kölner Rundfunkorchester)- Group
David de Villiers- Orchestra Director
Eternal Wind- Performers
Ralph Jones- Tenor and Soprano Sax, Flute, Bass Clarinet, Hichiriki, Bamboo Flutes
Charles Moore- Dumbek, Flugelhorn, Shofar, Conch Shells
Frederico Ramos- Acoustic and Elecric Guitars, Gimbri
Adam Rudolph- Small Percussion, Cymbals, Drums, Bells, Gong, Tabla, Didjiridoo, Whistles, Udu Clay Drums, Hand Drums, Kalgu, Kalngu (Talking drum)
**
01. 1st Movement  The African as Non-American  6:16
02. 2nd Movement  Transmutation  12:40
03. 3rd Movement  Love For All  11:46
04. 4th Movement  Freedom  15:22
**

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Yusef LATEEF - Club Date 1976

Yusef LATEEF - Club Date 1976
IMPL 8013

Jazz

The group features some amazing piano from Mike Nock vamping and grooving along at a pace that brings out the best in Lateef's reeds and the shimmering trumpet of Richard Williams and the record combines all of Lateef's exotic work on flute and saxes with a groove that you'll hardly hear on other albums.
**
Bass- Ernie Farrow
Drums- James Black
Piano- Mike Nock
Producer- Bob Thiele
Saxophone [Tenor], Flute, Oboe- Yusef Lateef
Trumpet- Richard Williams
**
A1. Oscarlypso 7:25
A2. Gee Sam Gee 6:10
A3. Rogi 6:40
B1. Brother John 8:45
B2. P-bouk 4:15
B3. Nu-bouk 8:15
**
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Yusef LATEEF - Ten Years Hence 1975

Yusef LATEEF - Ten Years Hence 1975
SD 2-1001

Jazz

This double LP was one of Yusef Lateef's last significant recordings. Soon he would take a long hiatus, live in Africa and return with some new age-oriented records. But on this date, a quartet outing with pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Bob Cunningham and drummer Albert "Tootle" Heath, Lateef (on tenor, flute, oboe, sealhorns, shanie, African thumb piano and percussion) is heard in prime form. One song has a string section another adds horns and background vocals but the emphasis is on the leader who gets to stretch out with three pieces being over 15 minutes; Lateef really digs into the date's lone standard on "But Beautiful." Worth searching for.
By Scott Yanov. AMG.
**
This set was produced by Joel Dorn and recorded live at San Francisco's legendary Keystone Corner, with some other elements overdubbed later in the studio. The band is stellar: Yusef playing no less than eight instruments, Kenny Barron on piano and cowbell, upright bassist Bob Cunningham (who also plays percussion instruments), Albert "Kumba" Heath on drums and various percussion, and a lone track with Bill Salter on electric bass. The shortest tune here is eight and a half minutes, and it's no less a composition that Barron's classic tune "A Flower"; the rest are all 12 minutes and up -- there are only five tunes for four LP sides! The album kicks off with Cunningham's three-part suite "Samba de Amor." Clocking in at over 22 minutes, it begins as a spiritual percussion orgy with all bandmembers joining in. Lateef uses a shanir to get inside, but also uses it as a percussion instrument. Two minutes in, Cunningham is bowing his bass elegiacally, but the melody is sweet, like a lost, haunted love song. Yusef's flute enters two minutes later and joins him in this slow skeletal song before the percussion section enters again in a joyous route as the second part begins and gives way to the longest section, a proper samba, full of lithe flute blowing, saxophone blowing, kit drums playing insane breaks, and wordless vocals covering the backdrop. This is followed by the tenor burner "Yusef's Mood," which covers soul, jazz, rhythm & blues, and boogie-woogie in its 18 minutes. The band is shouting and chanting a chorus as the audience goes nuts! Think of the audience participation on the Jazz Crusaders live albums times ten. There is a gorgeous reading of Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke's standard "But Beautiful," which ranks as one of the best ever committed to tape. The intuition and ease these players have with one another allows them to go out on ledges and keep melodies and time signatures together, yet experiment wildly with harmonics. The overdubbed strings on Barron's tune don't do much for it, frankly, but his piano improvisation around Lateef's flute is stunning. The encore is Lateef's killer "I Be Cold." There is a female backing chorus that was added later, but Lateef raps and plays call and response with his seal horn, while Cunningham's fuzzed-out bowed bass is gutbucket funky and greasy. The flute solo is so deep, so tight, that it demands the overdubbed trumpets and backing vocals to support and accent it. The funky horns and Heath's breaks set fire to the whole damn thang. This is not an album for everybody, but it is easily one of the most underrated sets in Lateef's vast catalog.
By Thom Jurek, All Music Guide.
**
Yusef Lateef- Tenor, Flute, Oboe, Shenai, African Thumb Piano and Percussion ;
Albert Heath- (Flute, Drums, Percussion);
Kenny Barron- (Piano, Cowbells);
Bob Cunningham- (Bass);
Bill Salter- (Bass Guitar).
**
A1. Medley: Samba De Amor/Samba De Amor/Time Montage/Samba De Amor 22:14
B1. Yusef's Mood 18:01
C1. But Beautiful 12:24
C2. Flower, A 8:28
D1. I Be Cold 17:58
**
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Yusef LATEEF - The Gentle Giant 1972

Yusef LATEEF - The Gentle Giant 1972
SD 1602

Jazz

From his emergence in the 1950s, the multi-instrumentalist Yusef Lateef has been a kindhearted warrior on the cutting edge of jazz. With his ahead-of-its-time inclusive attitude towards music in general, he was able to absorb multicultural influences long before it became fashionable. GENTLE GIANT, originally issued on the Atlantic label in 1972, is one of Lateef's more funk-oriented efforts. With plenty of lyrical soloing and deep grooves (and the remarkable Kenny Barron on piano!), GIANT is one of the cornerstone discs of crossover jazz.
**
So, it was 1972 and a lot of jazz musicians who had made their names in the 50's and 60's found the 70's difficult to adjust to. Most record companies wanted to make older jazz names "relevant" to a young record buying market firmly rooted in rock. This formula was disastrous for many but a few could ride the crest of this corporate minded wave and survive. In a couple of rare instances the artist could even continue to expand the trajectories they were already forging with only a minimum of disruption to their identity. Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Yusef Lateef are two of the few who adapted well to this corporate mindset (not that they were corporate minded), which saw that mostly white rock 'n roll buying public as a vast untapped reserve.

   Well, Lateef, like Kirk, was already stretching out into territory other jazz musicians of their generation kept safely away from and considering Lateef was already embracing Eastern instruments as early as the mid 1950's, it's not at all surprising to hear a smooth rock and roll rhythm section backing him on the very nice, groovy album opener, "Nubian Lady". The drums in particular are certainly more rooted in rock than jazz along with the electric bass and piano but Yusef's flute melody is firmly tied to his persona anyway and the song itself, sans the more rock friendly rhythm section, could easily have fit on "Eastern Sounds" from 1961. And man, there's a lot of flute on this album--standard flute, bamboo flute and pneumatic flute.  Next up, "Lowland Lullabye", is just cello and flute (again). Surprisingly this very pleasant little piece, which brings to mind the sun rising over an African savannah, does not feature Lateef at all. The simple but pretty flute is played by the drummer Kuumba 'Tootie' Heath.

   The cover of The Beatles "Hey Jude" is the only major misstep on the album and its flow. The first half of this nine minute ten second song is almost inaudible. This was apparently done intentionally. As it states in the liner notes, "Do not adjust the playback level on your audio equipment--Readjust your mind". The volume grows at a glacially slow pace, and early 70's hippie, "groovy concept" bullshit aside, it really obliterates a great portion of an otherwise fantastic cover of this song. Nice playing all around, with Lateef on oboe, mostly lost to the ether due to lack of volume until it just STOPS mid performance. Hmmmm.

   The hip electric piano vibe is back, as is Lateef's flute, on "Jungle Plum", where Lateef adds a Kirk-ish rhythmic scat talkin'/playin' technique. The flutes are out again for the next song, "The Poor Fishermen", both Yusef and and Tootie Heath playing a very lovely, slightly sombre Lateef original, which, as the song implies, brings to the mind's eye poor fishermen setting out for a long days work on a sunrise dappled ocean. "African Song" and "Queen Of The Night" (one of the best grooves on the album) both have a bit of electric backing with the keyboards and bass and AGAIN that damn flute! By this point one kinda thinks the term "Gentle Giant" arises from his instrument of choice on this record.

   That's the main negative, as Yusef is a superb saxophonist, not to mention one of the few big name jazz musicians to who can kick ass on the oboe (just imagine getting your ass kicked by an oboe wielding Yusef!). By limiting his wide pallet of horns, he does narrow the sound of the album, which leans towards the gauze shirted, bean bag side of mellow. The last track, "Below Yellow Bell", is a standout. Yusef does that part talking, part humming, part blowing into the mouthpiece of a horn, or maybe the pneumatic flute, to create a trippy, weird little piece. Punctuated by the odd electric keyboard stab, bells and bongos, this is the direction more of this album should have taken. But I'm sure some Atlantic records bigwig made it clear, "Yusef, baby, LOVE the flute! Yeah, my girlfriend finds the flute sexy, know what I mean? It's IN, the kids love it--Your gonna be the flute guru. Posters of ya' on kids walls baby! YEAH!!

   Oh yeah, it states in the liner notes that Yusef also plays tenor sax on this album. You can hear some oboe, like I said earlier, on the audible parts of "Hey Jude" but the tenor sax is MIA. But you know,  don't adjust the flutes, Readjust your MIND...
**
Yusef Lateef’s Atlantic recordings on a whole are much more erratic than his earlier Riverside and Impulse dates. This album has its moments of interest. There is less straightahead swinging than had been heard previously and, along with some exotic pieces, much of this music falls into the R&B field. Lateef, heard on flutes, oboe and tenor, contributes some strong solos but was a nine-minute version of “Hey Jude” really necessary?
By Scott Yanow, All Music Guide.
**
Yusef Lateef- Oboe, Piano, Tenor Sax , Bamboo Flute, Flute, Guitar;
Kuumba "Tootie" Heath (flute, drums);
Kermit Moore- Cello;
Neal Boyer- Vibraphone, Chimes;
Ray Bryant, Kenneth Barron- Piano, Electric Piano);
Eric Gale- Guitar;
Sam Jones, Chuck Rainey, Bob Cunningham- Bass;
Bill Salter- Electric Bass;
Jimmy Johnson- Drums;
Ladzi Cammara- African Percussion;
The Sweet Inspirations- Background Vocals.
**
A1. Nubian Lady (6:38) 
A2. Lowland Lullabye (2:12)
A3. Hey Jude (9:10)
B1. Jungle Plum (4:57)
B2. The Poor Fisherman (3:39)
B3. African Song (4:49) 
B4. Queen Of The Night (2:12)
B5. Below Yellow Bell (5:02)
**
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Yusef LATEEF - In A Temple Garden 1979

Yusef LATEEF - In A Temple Garden 1979
GP 3208, CTI 7088

Jazz

One More Gem For Collection
**
Jimmy Madison, Steve Gadd- Drums
Tom Schuman- Electric Piano (tracks: B3, B4)
Thomas Beyer- Electronic Drums [Syndrums]
Eric Gale- Guitar
Jeremy Wall- Keyboards [All Other] 
Jeremy Wall, Ray Barretto, Sammy Figueroa- Percussion
Tom Schuman- Piano (tracks: B1)
Jerry Dodgion- Alto Sax
Michael Brecker- Tenor Sax
Yusef Lateef- Tenor Sax, Flute 
Tom Schuman- Synthesizer-  (tracks: B4)
Suzanne Ciani- Synthesizer [Programing]
Jim Pugh- Trombone, Trombone [Bass]
Randy Brecker- Trumpet -
**
A1. In a Temple Garden   5:15
A2. Bismillah   4:08
A3. Confirmation   6:50
A4. Nayaz   3:00
B1. Jeremiah   6:25
B2. Honky Tonk   3:55
B3. How I Loved You   3:55
B4. Morocco   4:19
**
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Yusef LATEEF with Charles MINGUS at Birdland 1961 (Flac&MP3)

Yusef LATEEF with Charles MINGUS at Birdland 1961 (Flac&MP3)
All The Credits Go  To *inconstantsol*
Charlie Mingus And His Jazz Workshop
October 21, 1961 (Live) Radio Broadcast
Birdland, New York City

Jazz

This tries to clarify the seven broadcasts that were made from Birdland in New York City between October 21, 1961 and October 26, 1962. These WADO AM (1280) broadcasts were taped by Boris Rose, hence the reference to "Boris Rose tapes". He manufactured acetates from those tapes and the recordings were released on (his own?) bootleg labels such as Alto, Ozone, Session Disc and Yadeon. None of this material has been legitimately released (a hint to Revenge Records, if you still exist).

The most important audio source for this discography is an unissued "connoisseur set" on three CD-R's called "The Complete Birdland Broadcasts 1961-1962". This set includes all seven broadcasts with radio announcements and is mastered from four reels (inserts for these reels, scanned as JPEG files: Tape No. 1 (98 kb), Tape No. 2 (94 kb), Tape No. 3 (93 kb), Tape No. 4 (86 kb)) that were recorded from acetates made by Boris Rose from his original reels. I have used this set for all timings which I have measured with an audio software. The timings do not include any count-ins, introductions etc. unless there is music going on, for example under Symphony Sid's speech. The timings are as accurate as possible with -/+ 1 second marginal.

For comparisons I've also used the following releases from my own collection: "Vital Savage Horizons" (Alto AL 714), "Live At Birdland 1962" (Jazz View COD 028), "Charles Mingus" (Frequenz 044-011) and some miscellaneous sources that have accumulated over the years. For other releases I've relied on the information provided by Luigi Turrino (Tempo di jazz CDTJ 704, Musica Jazz 2 MJP 1067, Jazzman JM 11741).

The discographical data is based on Priestley's Mingus discography and has been compared to other relevant discographies such as Tom Lord's The Jazz Discography Volume 15 and Michael Fitzgerald's Henry Grimes Discography. For session artist titles I've used announcements by Pee Wee Marquette and Symphony Sid, but basically this is Charles Mingus And The Jazz Workshop All Stars all the way.

Unless you already know my email address please use the email form at the Fiasko Records website to send me corrections and additions. The reason for not putting my email address on this page is because I receive so much spam that it's difficult to cope with it even with the efficient spam filter (POPFile) I'm using. When sending corrections etc. try to be as specific as possible and cite the sources for your information (e.g. do you personally have the recording etc.).
By Esa Onttonen.
**
Jimmy Knepper- (Trombone)
Yusef Lateef- (Tenor Sax)
Roland Kirk- (Tenor Sax, Strich, Manzello)
Charles Mingus, Doug Watkins- (Bass)
Dannie Richmond- (Drums)
Pee Wee Marquette- (Musical Cond)
**
A.  [unknown title] 7:12 Alto AL 714 (BAT 5-8, Frequenz 044-011)
B.  Ecclusiastics (Mingus) 9:15 Alto AL 714 (BAT 5-8)
C.  Hog Callin' Blues (incomplete; fade-out) (Mingus) 3:08 BAT 5-8

Notes:
[1] Despite Mingus's introduction the first item (track a) bears no relationship to Blue Cee (Priestley, 1983). It is possible that this composition was later recorded on November 6, 1961 for Atlantic and is one of the unissued tracks that were destroyed in the Atlantic Records vault fire in February 1978. The solo order is Kirk, Mingus, Lateef and Knepper.

[2] On Alto AL 714 all introductions by Mingus and Pee Wee Marquette have been edited away. The titles, Improvisation (track a) and Ecclestiastes (track b), are also incorrect/mistitled.

[3] On Frequenz 044-011 liner notes incorrectly claim Roland Hanna on piano and Mingus on bass. The first track (a) is also misidentified as Blue Cee.
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Yusef LATEEF - Into Something 1962

Yusef LATEEF - Into Something 1962
NJLP 8272

Jazz

I don't know why, maybe it's because of the other Lateef albums I've listened to, but I expected more fire then is initially found here. It doesn't command your attention immediately. As a down-tempo album, is it meant to? I don't think so. One is ill advised to fault an album for being slow if that's it's intention. For those of us not needing our hands held (we all do from time to time), who are willing to listen and for those in the right mood - there's much to recommend here.

First. Intention. I'll take Hentoff's liner notes at face value and accept that the songs chosen for this album are ones admired by Lateef. It's easy to be cynical and assume that inclusion of songs like "When You're Smiling" have a commercial angle. Hentoff quotes Lateef as saying he remembers his father singing the song and he tells Hentoff he appreciates the song's message. So, it's inclusion is a personal one - fair enough. Any jazzbo knows a quality jazzman will alter the most inane pop song beyond recognition. Miles Davis took songs like "Some Day My Prince Will Come" and "Surrey With a Fringe on Top" and made them something to listen to. Coltrane renovated an old clunker like "My Favorite Things" and made it shine. Lateef's treatment of "When You're Smiling" is a good example of what an imaginative player can do with a tired old tune. He states the melody without too much surprise for maybe a minute (tops) and then explodes the thing into several pieces. The majority of the song has Lateef making 2- or 3-note statements from the familiar melodic phrase and then he runs off into inventive asides of stuttered lines and skronks and all manner of imaginative ideas; then, another small cluster of notes advancing the melody, leading into more extemporaneous runs. And so on. It's quite brilliant and is similar to Coltrane's method - though far less grand in scale. This is a good and restful (?) alternative - with Coltrane it's often so difficult to follow his reasoning, separated so thoroughly by seeming chaos, that a listener feels like a latter day Theseus who's forgotten the twine.

Listen to this album when you're willing to listen. Side A is entirely contemplative. The flip side lets loose a bit more and even approaches what some would call "outside". Elvin Jones handles drums for this date. He's a smart drummer. He's also a team player. He does exactly what's expected of him here which is to say he lays back and does not shake things up too much. His much loved polyphony pokes out numerous times throughout Into Something, but don't expect fireworks.

The oboe on Rasheed sounds full-bodied and satisfying on vinyl; at least on my system, with my ears. It's a nice sounding instrument and I prefer it to his flute playing - at least as found on this album. Another "ballads" album is the previous year's Eastern Sounds - a masterpiece where once again Lateef uses the oboe with great success.
**
Yusef Lateef- (Tenor Sax, Flute, Oboe)
Barry Harris- (Piano)
Herman Wright- (Bass)
Elvin Jones- (Drums)
**
A1. Rasheed 5:26
A2. When You're Smiling 4:43 
A3. Water Pistol 5:40
A4. You've Changed 4:53
B1. I'll Remember April 6:51
B2. Koko's Tune 6:29
B3. P Bouk 7:11
**
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Yusef LATEEF With Art FARMER - Autophysiopsychic 1977

Yusef LATEEF With Art FARMER - Autophysiopsychic 1977
CTI 7082

Jazz 
 
Autophysiopsychic is probably the single album that many Yusef Lateef fans either love or hate the most. Along with guest soloist Art Farmer on flugelhorn, guitarist Eric Gale, keyboardist Cliff Carter, drummer Jim Madison and bassist Gary King (except for "Sister Mamie," which features Steve Gadd and Alex Blake respectively), "Teefski" romps through five fat slices of original funk that have far more in common with the sounds of Chocolate City than with the bop sounds of 52nd Street. Autophysiopsychic is awash in the soft soul-funk-jazz sound typical of Creed Taylor's (CTI) productions in the 1970s. And even though the backing instrumentation and rhythms are not much more than mainstream R&B and funk shot through with a few oddities, Farmer and Lateef (on tenor and soprano saxes, flute and shanai) lay down solos that bite and swing so momentously that they provide musical merit to this entire project. Each seems to continually prod the other -- Lateef more robust and biting, Farmer more fluid and soft -- up to the next level. Their turns in "Robot Man" and "Look On Your Right Side" are particularly memorable, especially Farmer's closing solo in "Right Side," which seems to blend New Orleans swing with nursery-rhyme sing-song simplicity. Not the most typical album in Lateef's wide-ranging catalog, but certainly the most fun.
By Chris Slawecki, All Music Guide.
**
Art Farmer-  Flugelhorn
Noel Pointer-  Violin (Electric)
Sue Evans-  Percussion
Yusef Lateef-  Flute, Oboe, Sax (Soprano), Sax (Tenor), Vocals, Shahnai, Shanai 
Alex Blake-  Bass
Cliff Carter-  Keyboards
Babi Floyd-  Vocals (bckgr)
Steve Gadd-  Drums
Eric Gale-  Guitar
Milt Grayson-  Vocals (bckgr)
Gary King-  Bass
Jimmy Madison-  Drums
Frank Floyd-  Vocals (bckgr)
**
A1. Robot Man 6:37 
A2. Look On Your Right Side 5:08 
A3. YL 7:56 
B4. Communication 9:21 
B5. Sister Mamie 10:06
**
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Yusef LATEEF - A flat, G flat and C 1966

Yusef LATEEF - A flat, G flat and C 1966

Jazz

Yusef Lateef (heard on tenor, alto, flute, oboe and the mysterious-sounding theremin) is in explorative and consistently colorful form on this out-of-print LP, one of many Impulse sessions that are long overdue to be reissued on CD. With the assistance of pianist Hugh Lawson, bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Roy Brooks, Lateef performs ten songs (eight are his originals) that are all at least in abstract form related to the blues. Well worth several listens.
By Scott Yanow, All Music Guide.
**
Hugh Lawson- Piano
Roy Brooks- Drums
Reggie Workman- Bass
Yusef Lateef- Saxophone [Tenor, Alto], Flute, Oboe, Theremin
**
A1. Warm Hearted Blues  
A2. Nile Valley Blues  
A3. Robbie  
A4. Psyche Rose  
A5. Chuen Blues  
B1. Feather Comfort  
B2. Blind Willie  
B3. Feelin' Alright  
B4. Sound Wave  
B5. Kyoto Blues
**
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Yusef LATEEF - Plays for Lovers 1957

Yusef LATEEF - Plays for Lovers 1957
1966 PRT 7447

Jazz

Wilbur Harden- Flugelhorn, Balloon
Yusef Lateef- Flute, Sax (Tenor), Oboe, Multi Instruments, Main Performer
Ernie Farrow- Bass, Rabat
Oliver Jackson- Drums, Gong
Hugh Lawson- Piano
**
A1. If You Could See Me Now 
A2. Love Theme From "The Robe" 
A3. All Alone 
A4. Sea Breeze 
A5. Yesterdays 
B1. When You're Smiling 
B2. Meditation 
B3. You've Changed 
B4. Love Theme From "Spartacus"
**
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Yusef LATEEF - Jazz For The Thinkers 1957

Yusef LATEEF - Jazz For The Thinkers 1957

Jazz

"Jazz For Thinkers" a great title for this mind-expanding set of tunes from Yusef Lateef, recording here from the Detroit underground of the late 50s, with a really cosmic and exotic approach to his work! The album's one of the best of Lateef's sides for Savoy  a blend of hardbop influences with some Africanist leanings, never too over the top, but subtly snuck into more conventional elements of the tunes. The group's a quintet with Curtis Fuller, Louis Hayes, Ernie Farrow  and titles are all originals, and include "Space", "Midday", "Polarity", and "Happyology".
From Dusty Groove.
**
Yusef Lateef- Flute, Oboe, Tenor Sax
Curtis Fuller- Trombone
Ernie Farrow- Bass
Hugh Lawson- Piano
Louis Hayes- Drums
**
A1. Happyology 10:50
A2. O' Blues 9:00
B1. Midday 7:46
B2. Polarity 6:58
B3. Spaces 5:48
**
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Yusef LATEEF - Hush 'n' Thunder 1973

Yusef LATEEF - Hush 'n' Thunder  1973

Jazz

Recorded four years after Detroit, Yusef Lateef's Hush 'N' Thunder is a restless, wildly varied set, focusing on two aspects of his composing and playing methodology that have usually been showcased separately -- at least on his records. One is his R&B background, which comes off with a serious, down-home relativism that echoes both the Deep South of his upbringing and the mores trident big city versions of Chicago, Detroit, and New York. The other aspect of Lateef's musical character this album explores is his complex gift for melodic and chromatic arrangement. Lateef's penchant for compelling and unusual modal and melodic schematics as a composer is well-documented on his Prestige and Impulse sides, but has never been realized in setting where he played other people's music (he composed only one track here). Here, with the help of musicians as diverse as Ray Bryant, Kenny Barron, Bill Salter, Albert "Tootie" Heath, Kermit Moore, and Cornell Dupree, just to name a few, Lateef takes both bulls by the horns and alternates and combines them in new and unusual ways. Kenny Barron is the album's primary composer, and it is on his "The Hump" and R&B strutter that you get the first taste of Lateef's movement toward combinatory science: The front line consists of Lateef and Jimmy Owens on flügelhorn, with Barron, bassist Bob Cunnigham, and Heath on drums. What begins in standard cut time in I-IV-V progression begins to groove toward other dimensions in time sequencing in the solos. Shades of beat shifting and chameleon-like tempo are everywhere, even as the groove builds in intensity. Barron's "Prayer," a long, improvised cadenza that is as pastoral as a Vaughan Williams symphony, eventually mutates seamlessly into a blues groove driven by both Barron and Ray Bryant on piano and Salter's deeply funky bass groove. Lateef's solos on the pneumatic flute and Shennai are distorted, moaning, played from the heart of a different series of tonalities. The album closes with the meditative, slowly evolving "Destination Paradise," where Lateef's flute encounters three guitarists all engaging different modalities and playing a slow, subtle counterpoint as the rhythm section establishes a line that neither builds or dispels the tension. This album showcases Dr. Lateef heading for new musical frontiers as an interpreter and arranger and a deeply lyrical series of meditations on rhythm and melody.
By Thom Jurek, All Music Guide.
**
Yusef Lateef- (Tenor Sax, Flute, Shannai)
Jimmy Owens- (Flugelhorn)
Kermit Moore- (Cello)
David Spinozza, Cornell Dupree, Keith Loving- (Guitar)
Kenny Barron, Ray Bryant- (Biano)
Al White- (Organ)
Bill Salter- (Acoustic & Electric Basses)
Bob Cunningham, Gordine Edwards- (Acoustic Bass)
Albert "Tootie" Heath- (Drums)
Monroe "Bones' Constantino, The J.C. White Singers (Background Vocals)
**
A1. Come Sunday (Ellington) 2:33
A2. The Hump (Barron) 4:44
A3. Opus #1 - Opus #2 (Barron) 8:01
A4. This Old Building (Robinson) 2:41

B1. Prayer (Barron) 3:14
B2. Sunset (Barron) 7:53
B3. HIs Eye On The Sparrow (Traditional ) 5:33
B4. Destination Paradise (Lateef) 3:48
**
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Yusef LATEEF - Last Savoy Sessions 2000

Yusef LATEEF - Last Savoy Sessions 2000 (REPOST)
(2CDs)
Label: Savoy Jazz
Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey.
October 9 & 10, 1957 and June 11, 1959

Jazz

These pivotal sessions for Lateef and his Detroit-based groups comprise some of his most important music recorded for the Savoy label. This double CD set consists of complete albums The Dreamer and The Fabric of Jazz. (1959) and Jazz & The Sounds of Nature and Prayer to the East (1957) as well as a bonus cut. CD one is from the 1959 date, and contains some true Lateef classics like the slow swing of "Oboe Blues" and the bright, uppity waltz of "Valse Bouk."

The 1957 dates on Disc Two show Lateef and Harden more focused and together or contrary and conversational. "8540 12th St." showcases the two horns mostly listening and spontaneously responding with some unison added on this classic hard bopper, Harden's poignant one note preludes on his solo are unique as an organist might play it. The Prayer to the East session includes the easy blues swing of the title cut, with Lateef's flute invoking Arabic inflections. Others from The Sounds of Nature are the Afro-Cuban to swing-beated "Check Blues" with unusual harmonics from overblown flute or stabbing flugelhorn notes, and the 6/8 one-note bass (or rabat) foundation for "Gypsy Arab," a flute/percussion processional with gong coda. This is a welcome reissue, as it puts the final stripe on Lateef's prolific music for Savoy prior to his more commercialized outings for Atlantic proper. It's some of his more profound, definitve work and is easily worthy of a hearty and universal high recommendation, especially a must buy for those new to Lateef's musings.
By Michael G. Nastos, All Music Guide.
**
Yusef Lateef- Tenor Saxophone, Flute, Oboe, Percussion
Oliver Jackson- Drums
Frank Gant- Drums, Percussion
Ernie Farrow- Bass, Rabat, Percussion
Bernard McKinney- Euphonium
Bill Austin- Bass, Rabat
Also: Wilbur Harden, Hugh Lawson, Terry Pollard
**
Cd 1

01. Oboe Blues   5.49
02. Angel Eyes   5.13
03. The Dreamer   6.53
04. Arjuna   7.39
05. Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man   8.02
06. Moon Tree   5.48
07. Stella By Starlight   5.51
08. Valse Bouk   4.19
09. Half Breed   8.37
10. Poor Butterfly   6.38
*
Cd 2
01. 8540 Twelfth Street   4.26
02. Check Blues   6.40
03. Prayer To The East   8.20
04. A Night In Tunisia   9.56
05. Lover Man   6.47
06. Endura   13.13
07. Love Dance   6.47
08. Gypsy Arab   3.26
09. Sram   5.37
**
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Yusef LATEEF - Live At Pep's 1964

Yusef LATEEF - Live At Pep's 1964
Label: Grp
Audio CD: (October 26, 1993)
Recorded Live at Pep's Lounge in Philadelphia on June 29th, 1964

Jazz

This mid-'60s concert was one of Lateef's finest, as it perfectly displayed his multiple influences and interests. There were hard bop originals, covers of jazz classics like Oscar Pettiford's "Oscarlypso" (a CD bonus track) and Leonard Feather's "Twelve Tone Blues," as well as an unorthodox but effective version of Ma Rainey's "See See Rider." On "Sister Mamie," "Number 7," and drummer James Black's "The Magnolia Triangle," Lateef moved away from strict jazz, although he retained his improvisational flair. Lateef played meaty tenor sax solos and entrancing flute and bamboo flute offerings, and also had impressive stints on oboe, shenai, and argol. This was a pivotal date in his career, and those unaware of it will get a treat with this disc.
By Ron Wynn. AMG.
**
"Live at Pep's" memorializes a 1964 Lateef performance at the then-famous Philadelphia lounge. The set features Lateef's exotic sounds on oboe and wood flute, his rooted-in-the-earth blues playing on alto and the fine trumpet stylings of the late Richard Williams. If there's a complaint, it's that some of the tunes are too brief.
Lateef's ability to manage the recalcitrant double reed of the oboe is immediately demonstrated on "Sister Mami," where he rides herd over a sinuous, whining line that manages to sound bluesy and Eastern at the same time. Williams contributes a great, flashy trumpet break, but it doesn't last long enough.

There's plenty of blues throughout, the best being "Number 7" and "12 Tone Blues." The former is a kind of blues trilogy that goes through some interesting changes and features some fine harmonizing by Lateef and Williams and nice work by the underrated Mike Nock on piano.

Lateef is not the most technically gifted player around, but his playing has lots of soul and emotion and like Rahsaan Roland Kirk, he's never been afraid to stretch the boundaries of jazz with new instrumentation and incorporation of nontraditional influences. And any recording that gives us another taste of Richard Williams is to be valued. Good album from one of jazz's solid citizens.
By Tyler Smith.
**
Yusef Lateef- (Tenor Sax, Oboe, Argol, Tambourine);
Richard Williams- (Trumpet);
Mike Nock- (Piano);
Ernie Farrow- (Bass);
James Black- (Drums).
**
01. Sister Mamie 5:27 
02. Number 7 9:39
03. Twelve Tone Blues 4:50
04. Oscarlypso 7:46
05. Gee Sam Gee 6:38 
06. Rogi 6:44  
07. See See Rider 5:23
08. The Magnolia Triangle 5:16
09. The Weaver 5:40 
10. Slippin' & Slidin' 3:26
**
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Yusef LATEEF - Live at Pep's Volume Two 1964

Yusef LATEEF - Live at Pep's Volume Two 1964
Label: Polygram / Impulse!
Audio CD: (October 19, 1999)

Jazz

Recorded live at Pep's Lounge in Philadelphia on June 29th, 1964, we hear Lateef at his best. He combines his proclivity for musical eccentricity with a number of hard-swinging tunes. As usual, he plays not only tenor saxophone, but flute, oboe, and a very obscure instrument called an argol (a double clarinet that resembles a bassoon). He's backed by Richard Williams on trumpet, Mike Nock on piano, Ernie Farrow on bass and James Black on drums, and this group really shines on bluesy versions of "Brother John" and "Nu-Bouk."

The ballads, "I Loved" and "I Remember Clifford" are lovely, subtle and filled with brilliant climaxes and melodious tenderness. Other tracks such as "The Magnolia Triangle" and "Listen to the Wind" push the boundaries of hard bop, as Lateef and crew experiment with moments of harsh dissonance bordering on atonality. An extremely creative and well-conceived set of music, LIVE AT PEP'S delves into the very heart of jazz, for it seeks to push the envelope of spontaneity and improvisation and stretch one's concept of structure and form.
**
Thankfully Impulse had the good sense to complete the entire Live at Pep's evening by releasing Volume 2 in 1999. Impulse has been notoriously slow to release Yusef Lateef's material that he recorded for them in the 1960s onto CD (shamefully, only the two Live at Pep's albums were domestically available in 1999). Volume Two carries on this document of a live Yusef hard bop date in much the same fashion as Volume One. Both are particularly incredible in their recording quality and the performances of each player. The selections and the energy that is put into each and every song is especially moving, but shines specifically bright on "P-Bouk" and "Yusef's Mood," -- both showcase Yusef's highly personal and breathy approach to the flute. If you've got Volume One, Volume Two is an absolute, unquestionable must-have. If you don't have Volume One (or any Yusef Lateef recordings for that matter), buy them both.
By Jack LV Isles, All Music Guide.
**
Yusef Lateef- (Tenor Sax, Oboe, Argol, Tambourine);
Richard Williams- (Trumpet);
Mike Nock- (Piano);
Ernie Farrow- (Bass);
James Black- (Drums).
**
01.Brother John (9:10)
02.P-Bouk (4:30)
03.Nu-Bouk (7:40)
04.Yusef's Mood (6:40)
05.I Remember Clifford (6:12)
06.Listen To The Wind (4:44)
07.I Loved (4:28)
08.Delilah (10:15)
09.The Magnolia Triangle - Alternative Version (5:17)
**
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Yusef LATEEF - Other Sounds 1957

Yusef LATEEF - Other Sounds 1957
Label: Ojc
Release Date: 1989-08-26

Jazz

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.
By Thom Jurek, All Music Guide.
**
Yusef Lateef- (Tenor Sax, Flute, Argol);
Wilbur Harden- (Flugelhorn);
Hugh Lawson- (Piano, Turkish Finger Cymbals);
Ernie Farrow- (Bass, Rebob);
Oliver Jackson- (Drums, Earth-Board).
**
01.All Alone  
02.Anastasia
03.Minor Mood
05.Lambert's Point
06.Mahaba (African Languages)
**
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Yusef LATEEF - Eastern Sounds 1961

Yusef LATEEF - Eastern Sounds 1961
Label: Prestige/OJC
Audio CD: (July 18, 2006)

Jazz

One of multi-instrumentalist and composer Yusef Lateef's most enduring recordings, Eastern Sounds was one of the last recordings made by the band that Lateef shared with pianist Barry Harris after the band moved to New York from Detroit, where the jazz scene was already dying. Lateef had long been interested in Eastern music, long before John Coltrane had ever shown any public interest anyway, so this Moodsville session (which meant it was supposed to be a laid-back ballad-like record), recorded in 1961, was drenched in Lateef's current explorations of Eastern mode and interval, as well as tonal and polytonal improvisation. That he could do so within a context that was accessible, and even "pretty," is an accomplishment that stands today. The quartet was rounded out by the inimitable Lex Humphries on drums, whose brushwork was among the most deft and inventive of any player in the music with the possible exception of Connie Kay from the Modern Jazz Quartet -- and bass and rabat player Ernie Farrow. The set kicks off with "The Plum Blossom," a sweet oboe and flute piece that comes from an Eastern scale and works in repetitive rhythms and a single D minor mode to move through a blues progression and into something a bit more exotic, which sets up the oboe-driven "Blues for the Orient." Never has Barry Harris' playing stood up with more restraint to such striking effect than it does here. He moves the piece along with striking ostinatos and arpeggios that hold the center of the tune rather than stretch it. Lateef moans softly on the oboe as the rhythm section doubles, then triples, then half times the beat until it all feels like a drone. There are two cinematic themes here, he cut themes from the films Spartacus and The Robe, which are strikingly, hauntingly beautiful, revealing just how important accessibility was to Lateef. And not in the sense of selling out, but more in terms of bringing people to this music he was not only playing, but discovering as well. (Listen to Les Baxter and to the early-'60s recordings of Lateef, which ones are more musically enduring?) However, the themes set up the deep blues and wondrous ballad extrapolations Lateef was working on, like "Don't Blame Me" and "Purple Flower," which add such depth and dimension to the Eastern-flavored music that it is hard to imagine them coming from the same band.
By Thom Jurek. AMG.
**
Yusef Lateef- Tenor sax, Oboe, Flute
Barry Harris- Piano
Ernie Farrow- Bass, Rabat
Lex Humphries- Drums
**
01. The Plum Blossom  4:55
02. Blues For the Orient  5:37
03. Chinq Miau  3:17
04. Don't Blame Me  4:55
05. Love Theme From "Spartacus"  4:12
06. Snafu  5:38
07. Purple Flower  4.29
08. Love Theme from "The Robe"  4:00
09. The Three Faces of Balal  2:18
**
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