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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZLATEEF, Yusef(b William Emanuel Huddleston, 9 October 1920, Chattanooga TN; d 23 December 2013, Shutesbury MA) Reeds; also composer, teacher. He began on alto sax in high school in Detroit, then tenor, later exploring oboe and various flutes, making some himself. He worked for Lucky Millinder in NYC '46, others; became a Muslim '48 and influenced John Coltrane's reading. He worked with Dizzy Gillespie '49; he formed a combo in Detroit '55; back to NYC with quartet '60; with Charles Mingus '60-1, Olatunji '61-2, then Cannonball Adderley two years. He was also a painter; he published Yusef Lateef's Flute Book Of The Blues (2 vols), other books of arrangements and improvisations. He had a strong Middle Eastern influence almost from the beginning; he was soon one of the first to object to being categorized as a jazz artist, preferring to consider music as a whole. A prolific period of recording began on Savoy '57: LPs Jazz And The Sounds Of Nature and Prayer To The East, two other sets in various issues as Jazz For Thinkers, Stablemates, Morning, Jazz Moods; Prestige/New Jazz session same year issued as The Sounds Of Yusef and Other Sounds (reissued as Expressions). Yusef Lateef At Cranbrook (Academy of Art in Detroit) '58 on Argo was followed by The Fabric Of Jazz and The Dreamer on Savoy, Cry! Tender on Prestige/New Jazz, all '59. Quintets Contemplation on Vee-Jay with Nat Adderley and Sam Jones; Lost In Sound on Charlie Parker, Reactivation, several other labels; Three Faces Of Yusef Lateef and larger group The Centaur And the Phoenix on Mainstream/Riverside, all '60. Quartets Eastern Sounds and Into Something '61 on Prestige labels were followed by Impulse LPs including The Live Sessions, Live At Pep's (Lounge, Philadelphia), The Golden Flute, others '63-6, then on Atlantic for four LPs '67-9, The Gentle Giant '74, two-disc 10 Years Hence '75, The Doctor Is In ... And Out '76 (two-CD anthology Every Village Has A Song on Atlantic). Autophysiophysic '77 was on CTI. In Nigeria '83 appeared on Landmark, then on his own YAL label he had seven dance pieces forming a hybrid suite by a Nigerian group, an example of why Lateef would reject the 'jazz' label as too limiting. He concentrated on ambitious composition; African-American Epic Suite on ACT for quintet (Eternal Wind) and orchestra (the Cologne Radio Orchestra) successfully combined exotic instruments, African-inspired melodies and European orchestra voicings. On YAL, Full Circle '96 was a conventional quintet in an introspective mood (he sang on some tracks in a mellow tenor); two-CD The World At Peace '96 had a big exotic band, the sounds well blended; quintet Earth And Sky: Tenors And Flutes '97 (co-led with Sayyd A. Al-Khabyyr) was half positive Islamic-influenced raps, ended with an exciting, swirling, up-tempo two-tenor 'Noissapmuc'. He made two pilgrimages to Mecca in his lifetime. He was Five College Professor of music and music education from 1987 to 2002. (This is a consortium in the Pioneer Valley in Western Massachusetts of Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, Smith, and the U. of Massachusetts at Amherst.) He was unfailingly kind and helpful to students and others; his biography, by Herb Boyd, is called The Gentle Giant. |