Yusef Lateef - An RIP and Appreciation Thread

One of the greats. Generally underesteemed in my opinion by the jazz community once his interests branched away from the establishment too far. Love this guy. RIP.

mainly aware of him through 'eastern sounds' + work with cannonball (i.e. nothing in 50 years) but yeah. rip

"eastern sounds" is all time

this one is so good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAvYa64eXf8
bernard purdie on drums iirc!

oh no, I love yusef. such sad news

for folks looking to spotify, i would suggest:
eastern sounds
the sounds of lateef
the centaur and the phoenix
into something
gentle giant
The Blue Yusef Lateef
The golden flute
part of the search
prayer to the east

i mean there's really not much of a bad way to get started honestly

i got to see him perform in april and get a quick handshake; felt like a blessing then and feels like a blessing now

One of those people where I'll buy any records I don't have when I see them because I know they'll be good. They just will. He was that good.

Such an unheralded innovator, too. May he rest well.

I am almost totally ignorant of this guy's work—know the name, obviously, but he's just someone (Randy Weston is another one) I've never gotten around to.

Generally underesteemed in my opinion by the jazz community once his interests branched away from the establishment too far.

is the "detroit" album an example of him "branching away from the establishment too far." That song in the YouTube clip is fantastic.

not sure -- he kinda drifted into more new agey things in the 80s and 90s I think? That might be more what that refers to.

listened to the Detroit album last night, totally excellent soul-rock jazz...looking over his discography, there's like a million things I haven't heard.

I am almost totally ignorant of this guy's work—know the name, obviously, but he's just someone (Randy Weston is another one) I've never gotten around to.

― Humorist (horse) (誤訳侮辱), Tuesday, December 24, 2013 10:48 AM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm in the same boat (though I know Weston slightly better because of Wildflowers). I used to see him in the audience from time to time at shows in Western Mass, and a good friend of mine was a student of Lateef's, and spoke very highly of him as a teacher.

this is good - http://www.wgbh.org/programs/Jazz-Portraits-674/episodes/Saxophonist-Yusef-Lateef-9664

Will be jamming "Live at Pep's" and "Psychicemotus" driving back and forth to holiday shindigs.

aw man RIP

whoa this is crazy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX-3A4fqgcE
had no idea he had stuff like this... almost a p-funk track here.

tylerw, thanks for posting that NPR link. Really fascinating and illuminating.

https://24.media.tumblr.com/a9cc7bcca3417e5fc02177ac50f411ca/tumblr_myblz1t0fM1qzhoqfo1_500.jpg

sweet youtube find there tyler!

really is pretty crazy, i guess his CTI albums are kinda like that? i've never heard them.

I feel bad for not knowing much about this guy too, and also he was related by marriage to a woman i work with? in the family somehow. is there an official obit somewhere?

looooooooooove the drums in the first song posted above!!! dang.

ohhhhh fuck

rip

very sad news -- I was just listening to Eastern Sounds the other day, and while I'm not familiar enough with Lateef's catalog to fairly evaluate that record's place therein, its unfussy eclecticism will always have a place in my heart.

this is a lovely quotation

"To me," he told the Times in 1989," it feels as though there's a kind of aesthetic thread running through the improvisational musics of the world. If you're alive and your heart is beating, you'll find it, and that's what makes the relationship between you and the world."

http://www.latimes.com/obituaries/la-me-yusef-lateef-20131225,0,7549278.story#ixzz2oPoxd100

Much beloved in our household is "Cry/Tender", which is sort of a precursor to Eastern Sounds. I was always holding out for the chance to see him and it never happened.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TveobyX-ps

Yeah, i'm referring to his later "new-agey" stuff putting him out of heavy jazz celebration. He played live around the city a bit in later years with adam rudolph but with less straight-ahead stuff. i def love his more funkyass shit, he'd often go off the rails in wonderful directions. compare the knowing funk of nubian lady
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMFbQrCzSjg
to the cuddly silliness of strange lullaby
https://play.spotify.com/track/5ElTSbHsSvF5Mc5YblgwY6

unfussy eclecticism is a good description, yes

nice, "nubian lady" is very happening.

first obit i've seen
http://www.latimes.com/obituaries/la-me-yusef-lateef-20131225,0,7549278.story#axzz2oQHYLBaf

here's the ny times - http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/25/arts/music/yusef-lateef-innovative-jazz-saxophonist-and-flutist-dies-at-93.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=nytimesarts&_r=0

This was the first obit I saw, from the Northampton, MA paper:
http://www.gazettenet.com/home/9933516-95/musical-pioneer-yusef-lateef-dies-at-93
Nice local angle on Lateef.

93! Wow!

'Nubian Lady' was a secret weapon of mine back when I used to DJ a funk night.

Still one of his best tunes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hwXt4eGlw4#t=36

been listening to that eastern market song on a loop. love it's funkiness. can you see, even in this song, perhaps, the faintest hints of the "new age-y" direction that he apparently went in years later?

i dunno. could be the lingering remains of last night's 103.8° fever.

can someone give me an example of this "new agey" direction he went in? i never know what people mean when they say that -- like smooth jazz? or like sunlight and synths? or canned beats + indigenous folksong or something else?

also yeah eastern market is OUT OF CONTROL

this record is the one I've heard that is new agey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwwDowB0llA
it actually sounds kind of cool tbh

oh! yeah. hm.

that's unusual but interesting! i like it. it's even kinda horror soundtracky!? i guess it goes a little kenny g around the 4:30 mark but it's not offensively sappy or anything. when was he written off as "new agey"?

i was the employee in charge of the "new age" section of the store i worked at, and "new age" meant something way different in the 90s than it does now. some of the artists filed there when i worked at the store included tangerine dream, popol vuh, solo brian eno, + windham hill/kitaro/enya, etc and so on. i volunteered to be in that section bc no one wanted it. hehehehe.

well new age is the coolest now, so you were ahead of your time!
a little research tells me this album won the Grammy for Best New Age Album.

my favorite movement of the Little Symphony is the 3rd movement

Damn! that whole Detroit album absolutely smokes. I feel like a bit of a sinner for not being more familiar with this dude, will be remedying that.

Cool that he kept playing all the way to the end. I only ever heard _Eastern Music_ and regret not exploring further till now. Thanks for the list upthread, forks. Listening to _The Blue Yuseef Lateef_ right now and it's really terrific.

Sorry, Yusef -- didn't mean to both misspell your name and get an album title wrong.

Very sad to get this news. I saw him with the Belmondo brothers a few years ago and his playing and presence were both inspiring. Also this is one of my ringtones:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQMx2mUpQZY

Memorial broadcast on WKCR now thru January 2.

Sad to hear of the passing of YL. He is responsible for one of my favorite pieces of music ever, and probably one I have turned to as much as anything else over the years:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNVygwZ4V6o

Russell and Eliot sounding ridiculously good while I am grading papers.

I have been blasting out Eastern Sounds today, just absolutely classic

I picked up Live at Pep's today, happy to finally have a copy of it. Lateef is always just right.

I just picked up a copy of ‘The Diverse Yusef Lateef’. Damn it’s good. Funny, I’d listened to a couple of other albums years back and thought they were all over the place. This one is too, but feels of a piece (to me anyway).

It's four tracks over 28 minutes. There’s some funk, lots of flute, weird vocals, strings and some Eastern instrumentation that reminds me a bit of Alice Coltrane.

The album liner notes mention that the album was a response to fan requests for him to compose longer songs. I only wish they were longer!

Thanks for the tip, I never heard Diverse Yusef Lateef before!

Reading previous posts, I want to give a shout to vol. 2 of Live at Pep's which imo is even better.

Also a fun fact: he was a mentor and friend to a young Makaya McCraven.

daaamn nubian lady rules

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMjWIHSOURM

yeah, love that track

Kenny Barron, who wrote that tune, has an excellent album from around the same time, Peruvian Blue.