Yusef Lateef

Reddit post on Yusef Lateef. So I listened to "Love Theme From Spartacus" on Eastern Sounds (1961 recorded, released 1962).

October 8th was the day he was born, so for me October 8th is forever Yusef Lateef Day. 

Dr. Yusef Abdul Lateef (1920-2013) was born in Chattanooga Tennessee with the name William Emanuel Huddleston. His father changed the family name to Evans at some point, he was a 3rd Bill Evans of Jazz (one, two). They moved to Lorain, Ohio when he was 3, and Detroit Michigan when he was 5. When he graduated from Miller High School, he began touring with Swing Bands. The young reedist moved to Chicago in 1948, played with Sun Ra (still called Sonny Blount). In 49 he toured with Dizzy Gillespie. He studied composition at Wayne State in Detroit. He converted to Islam and changed his name. Lateef began recording as a leader in 1957. In 1960, he moved to New York City and joined Charles Mingus' band. He then performed and recorded with Cannonball Adderley from 1962-64. He worked with Nigerian percussionist Babatunde Olatunji. He got formal education and taught at Amhurst. African influences became more noticeable in his music when he spent four years studying and teaching in Nigeria in the early 1980s. Lateef died of prostate cancer on the morning of December 23, 2013, at the age of 93, survived by his wife, Ayesha, and son, Yusef, a granddaughter; and several great-grandchildren. Lateef's first wife, Tahira, predeceased him, as did a son and a daughter.

He played the shehnai and arghul, Shofar, Xun, koto, bamboo flute on top of oboe and and flute, tenor and alto saxophone. He's most known for tenor saxophone. “My attempts to experiment with new instruments grew out of the monotony of hearing the same old sounds played by the same old horns,” he once told DownBeat magazine (Times Obit). "He flavored his music with scales, drones and percussion effects borrowed from Asia and the Middle East. He played world music before world music had a name." (op cit). 

He painted, wrote poetry and published several books of fiction. He also ran his own record company, YAL, which he established in 1992.

Mr. Lateef professed to find the word “jazz” limiting and degrading; he preferred “autophysiopsychic music,” a term he invented. He further distanced himself from the jazz mainstream in 1980 when he declared that he would no longer perform any place where alcohol was served. “Too much blood, sweat and tears have been spilled creating this music to play it where people are smoking, drinking and talking,” he explained to The Boston Globe in 1999. (op cit)

His album “Yusef Lateef’s Little Symphony,” on which he played all the instruments via overdubbing, won a Grammy Award in 1988, though not in any of the jazz or classical categories; it was named best New Age performance. Mr. Lateef said at the time that, while he was grateful for the award, he didn’t know what New Age music was. (op cit)

Music Links

Eastern Sounds (1961) on Spotify.

Live at Pep's (1965) on Spotify.

Detroit Latitude Longitude (1969) on Spotify.

Grantstand by Grant Green with Yusef Lateef.

Lateef 7th Minor

Reddit user has favorite instrument songs:

Flute song "Stay With Me" on Spotify.

Oboe song "See The Rider" on Spotify.

Tenor Sax "Gettin' Sentimental" on Spotify.

Best Composition "Mornin'" on Spotify.

Links:

Jazzwax interview (Part 2)

Jazz Weekly Interview

Reddit anecdote

NY Times Obit

Looks like an interesting book: Yusef Lateef; Herb Boyd (2005). The Gentle Giant: The Autobiography of Yusef Lateef. Morton Books Inc.

Personal website

Side note, I became curious about rating jazz albums, and came across Rate Your Music. Seems pretty bogus to put Frank Zappa at #5, even though I do really like that album Hot Rats. So I drilled down and there's Big Band, and no Benny Goodman or Glen Miller?