| Yusef Lateef |
|
| Background information |
| Birth name |
William Emanuel Huddleston |
| Born |
October 9 1920 (1920--) (age 87) |
| Origin |
Chattanooga, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Genre(s) |
Jazz |
| Occupation(s) |
Saxophonist, Flautist |
| Instrument(s) |
Tenor saxophone, flute, oboe, bamboo flute, shanai, shofar, arghul, koto |
Associated
acts |
Cannonball Adderley, Elvin Jones |
Dr. Yusef Lateef (born William Emanuel Huddleston, October 9,
1920) is an American jazz
musician. He plays principally on tenor saxophone and
flute. He is known for his innovative blending of "Eastern"
music with American jazz. He also plays the oboe, bamboo
flute, shanai, shofar, arghul, sarewa, and koto.
Early life
Yusef Lateef was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In 1925, Lateef and his family moved to Detroit,
Michigan where Lateef's musical career would begin. Throughout his early life Lateef came into
contact with a number of accomplished jazz musicians including Milt Jackson,
Paul Chambers, Elvin Jones, and Kenny Burrell. Lateef was a proficient saxophonist by the time of his graduation from high school at age 18, at which point he launched his professional career and began touring with a number of
swing bands. In 1949, at this stage using the name William Evans, Lateef was invited
by Dizzy Gillespie to tour with his world-renowned orchestra.
Career
Lateef first began recording as a leader in 1957 for Savoy Records working with
musicians such as Wilbur Harden, a non-exclusive association which continued until 1959;
the earliest of Lateef's album's for the Prestige subsidiary New Jazz overlap with
them.
By 1961, with the recording of Into Something and Eastern Sounds, Lateef's dominant presence within a group context had emerged. His "Eastern"
influences are clearly audible in all of these recordings, using instruments like the rahab,
shanai, arghul, koto and a collection of wooden Chinese flutes and bells along with his tenor and flute. Even
his use of the western oboe sounds exotic in this context as it is not a standard jazz instrument
but still the whole thing remains approachable for most Western ears. Indeed the tunes themselves are a mixture of jazz
standards, blues and film music played with a piano/bass/drums rhythm section. This variety of instrumentation and repertoire
gave his music a unique richness. Lateef also made numerous contributions to other people's albums including his time as a member
of Cannonball Adderley's Quintet from 1962-64.
Lateef's sound has been claimed to have been a major influence on the saxophonist John
Coltrane, whose later period free jazz recordings contain similarly "Eastern" traits.
For a time (1963-66) Lateef was signed to Coltrane's label, Impulse. He had a regular
working group during this period, with trumpeter Richard Williams and Mike Nock on piano. They enjoyed a residency at Pep's Lounge during June 1964;
an evening of which has been issued on CD.
In the late 1960s he began to incorporate contemporary soul/gospel phrasing into his music, still with a strong blues
underlay, on albums such as Detroit and Hush'n'Thunder.
Lateef has expressed a dislike of the terms "jazz" and "jazz musician" as musical generalizations. As is so often the case
with such generalizations, the use of these terms do understate the breadth of his sound. For example, in the 1980s, Lateef
experimented with new age and spiritual elements. His 1987 album Yusef Lateef's Little Symphony won the Grammy award for Best New
Age Album. His core influences, however, are clearly rooted in jazz, and in his own words: "My music is jazz." [1]
In 1992, Lateef founded YAL Records, his own label for which he records today. In 1993, Lateef
was commissioned by the WDR Radio Orchestra to compose The African
American Epic Suite, a four part work for orchestra and quartet based on themes of slavery and disfranchisement in the United States. The piece has since
been performed by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
Higher education and Ahmadiyya
In 1950, Lateef returned to Detroit and began his studies in composition and
flute at Wayne State University. It was during this period that Lateef converted
to Ahmadiyya and changed his name to the form it holds today.
In 1960, Lateef again returned to school. At the Manhattan School of Music
in New York, Lateef pursued further studies in flute. He received a Bachelor's Degree in Music in 1969 and a Master's Degree in
Music Education in 1970. Starting in 1971, he taught courses in autophysiopsychic music at the
Manhattan School of Music, and he became an associate professor at the Borough of Manhattan Community College in 1972.
In 1975, Lateef completed his dissertation on Western and Islamic education and earned a Ph.D. in Education from the University of
Massachusetts Amherst.
Lateef has written and published a number of books including a novella entitled A Night in the Garden of Love and the short story
collections Spheres and Rain Shapes. Along with his
record label YAL Records, Lateef owns Fana Music, a music publishing company. Lateef publishes
his own work through Fana, which includes Yusef Lateef's Flute Book of the Blues and many
of his own orchestral compositions.
Selected discography
- Jazz Mood (1957)
- Prayer to the East (1957)
- Cry! - Tender (1959)
- Into Something (1961)
- Eastern Sounds (1961) w Barry
Harris
- Live at Pep's (Volumes 1 and 2) Philadelphia,
(1964)
- Psychicemotus (1965) w Reggie Workman (bass),
James Black (drums) and George Arvanitas
(piano).Impulse Records
- The Golden Flute (1966)
- The Blue Yusef Lateef (1968) - Kenny Burrell,
Blue Mitchell and Cecil McBee
- Detroit (1969) a funky jazz tribute to his hometown,
- Hush 'N' Thunder (1972)
- Part of the Search (1974)
- The Doctor is In... And Out (1974)
- Ten Years Hence (1975)
- Autophysiopsychic (1978)
- B-Flat recordings with Lionel and Stéphane Belmondo (2005)
As a sideman:
External links
| Persondata |
| NAME |
Lateef, Yusef |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES |
Lateef, Dr. Yusef; Huddleston, William Emanuel |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION |
American jazz musician |
| DATE OF BIRTH |
October 9, 1920 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH |
Chattanooga, Tennessee |
| DATE OF DEATH |
|
| PLACE OF DEATH |
|
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