Search - Yusef Lateef :: Encounters

Music for the mind

Joan B. Montney | Glendale Az USA | 10/20/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Encounters is another production by Lateef that combines jazz influences with new age.This is not the typical Yusef Lateef that most fans are probably used to hearing.It does however,provide the listener with a very thought provoking and distintcly different sound.His use of chord structures are quite unusual.Soothing,relaxing,yet haunting all at the same time.Acoustic/electric piano,acoustic guitar,various saxophones,flutes,voice and even an harpsicord are just a few of the istruments used to complete this album.Nice jazz style guitar on encounters #15,beautiful piano and voice arrangement on #5,Great tenor sax on #12,#6 features a female vocalist,#1,#4 are both piano only compositions and #8 has nice interplay between the flute and vocals.A fairly decent album overall.My only complaint has to do with the short running time of each individual song.But this does leave you wanting more with a few of them.Final thought! This music can be relaxing enough to put the listener into a sleep state but there is no telling what the subconcious mind may be picking up on ???.Give it a listen and judge for yourself."