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.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 24 December 2013 15:58 (ten years ago) link
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.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 24 December 2013 15:59 (ten years ago) link
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.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 24 December 2013 16:02 (ten years ago) link
this is good - http://www.wgbh.org/programs/Jazz-Portraits-674/episodes/Saxophonist-Yusef-Lateef-9664
― tylerw, Tuesday, 24 December 2013 16:07 (ten years ago) link
Will be jamming "Live at Pep's" and "Psychicemotus" driving back and forth to holiday shindigs.
― Liquid Plejades, Tuesday, 24 December 2013 16:16 (ten years ago) link
aw man RIP
― Ayn Rand Akbar (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 24 December 2013 16:23 (ten years ago) link
whoa this is crazyhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX-3A4fqgcEhad no idea he had stuff like this... almost a p-funk track here.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 24 December 2013 16:25 (ten years ago) link
tylerw, thanks for posting that NPR link. Really fascinating and illuminating.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 24 December 2013 16:33 (ten years ago) link
https://24.media.tumblr.com/a9cc7bcca3417e5fc02177ac50f411ca/tumblr_myblz1t0fM1qzhoqfo1_500.jpg
― tylerw, Tuesday, 24 December 2013 17:05 (ten years ago) link
sweet youtube find there tyler!
― Ayn Rand Akbar (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 24 December 2013 17:09 (ten years ago) link
really is pretty crazy, i guess his CTI albums are kinda like that? i've never heard them.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 24 December 2013 17:10 (ten years ago) link
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.
― mambo jumbo (La Lechera), Tuesday, 24 December 2013 17:11 (ten years ago) link
ohhhhh fuck
― From the Album No Baby for You! (Matt P), Tuesday, 24 December 2013 17:23 (ten years ago) link
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.
― confused subconscious U2 association (bernard snowy), Tuesday, 24 December 2013 17:30 (ten years ago) link
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
― mambo jumbo (La Lechera), Tuesday, 24 December 2013 17:45 (ten years ago) link
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.
― "Turkey In The Straw" coming from someplace in the clouds (Sparkle Motion), Tuesday, 24 December 2013 18:45 (ten years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TveobyX-ps
― mustread guy (schlump), Tuesday, 24 December 2013 18:48 (ten years ago) link
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 ladyhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMFbQrCzSjgto the cuddly silliness of strange lullabyhttps://play.spotify.com/track/5ElTSbHsSvF5Mc5YblgwY6
― Strangers look on with a discernible, barely contained ‘wow’. (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 24 December 2013 19:12 (ten years ago) link
unfussy eclecticism is a good description, yes
― Strangers look on with a discernible, barely contained ‘wow’. (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 24 December 2013 19:13 (ten years ago) link
nice, "nubian lady" is very happening.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 24 December 2013 19:16 (ten years ago) link
first obit i've seenhttp://www.latimes.com/obituaries/la-me-yusef-lateef-20131225,0,7549278.story#axzz2oQHYLBaf
― Strangers look on with a discernible, barely contained ‘wow’. (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 24 December 2013 19:39 (ten years ago) link
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
― tylerw, Tuesday, 24 December 2013 20:05 (ten years ago) link
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-93Nice local angle on Lateef.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 24 December 2013 20:09 (ten years ago) link
93! Wow!
― the late great, Tuesday, 24 December 2013 20:25 (ten years ago) link
'Nubian Lady' was a secret weapon of mine back when I used to DJ a funk night.
Still one of his best tunes.
― Austin, Tuesday, 24 December 2013 20:53 (ten years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hwXt4eGlw4#t=36
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 24 December 2013 21:24 (ten years ago) link
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.
― Daniel, Esq 2, Tuesday, 24 December 2013 21:34 (ten years ago) link
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
― mambo jumbo (La Lechera), Tuesday, 24 December 2013 21:42 (ten years ago) link
this record is the one I've heard that is new ageyhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwwDowB0llAit actually sounds kind of cool tbh
― tylerw, Tuesday, 24 December 2013 21:54 (ten years ago) link
oh! yeah. hm.
― Daniel, Esq 2, Tuesday, 24 December 2013 21:58 (ten years ago) link
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.
― mambo jumbo (La Lechera), Tuesday, 24 December 2013 22:01 (ten years ago) link
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.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 24 December 2013 22:22 (ten years ago) link
my favorite movement of the Little Symphony is the 3rd movement
― Mmm yes hello (crüt), Wednesday, 25 December 2013 05:31 (ten years ago) link
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.
― xelab, Wednesday, 25 December 2013 17:21 (ten years ago) link
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.
― Øystein, Wednesday, 25 December 2013 19:51 (ten years ago) link
Sorry, Yusef -- didn't mean to both misspell your name and get an album title wrong.
― Øystein, Wednesday, 25 December 2013 19:54 (ten years ago) link
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
― doug watson, Wednesday, 25 December 2013 20:02 (ten years ago) link
Memorial broadcast on WKCR now thru January 2.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 1 January 2014 15:30 (ten years ago) link
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
― grandavis, Friday, 3 January 2014 15:35 (ten years ago) link
Russell and Eliot sounding ridiculously good while I am grading papers.
― we slowly invented brains (La Lechera), Thursday, 3 April 2014 02:35 (ten years ago) link
I have been blasting out Eastern Sounds today, just absolutely classic
― calzino, Tuesday, 28 June 2016 14:36 (seven years ago) link
I picked up Live at Pep's today, happy to finally have a copy of it. Lateef is always just right.
― Scam jam, thank you ma’am (Sparkle Motion), Sunday, 22 April 2018 03:14 (six years ago) link
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!
― cooldix, Wednesday, 11 March 2020 06:43 (four years ago) link
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.
― stop torturing me ethel (broom air), Wednesday, 11 March 2020 15:08 (four years ago) link
daaamn nubian lady rules
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMjWIHSOURM
― corrs unplugged, Thursday, 13 April 2023 12:35 (one year ago) link
yeah, love that track
― mizzell, Thursday, 13 April 2023 13:30 (one year ago) link
Kenny Barron, who wrote that tune, has an excellent album from around the same time, Peruvian Blue.
― mizzell, Thursday, 13 April 2023 14:12 (one year ago) link