Yuseef Lateef . . .
Jan P. Dennis | Monument, CO USA | 01/25/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
". . . he's from another planet, man. One I'd like to visit.And can, via the wizardry of modern musical legerdemain.This disc, one of several he's recorded with Adam Rudolph and Go: Organic Orchestra, finds the multi-instrumental wind maestro, world-jazz mage, and musical iconoclast in perhaps his ultimate setting: amid a huge ensemble of exotic wind and percussion instruments plying his unique jazz-beat vision.Let's start with some thoughts from the Mr. Lateef, taken from the liner notes: "Reality ordinarily overcomes tattered thoughts, providing one's mental regency engenders, in this case, a sericulture untinged by roving encroachments." Ahem. More: "Monumental observation implosively signals tapestry untread but allow[s] a revision in spite of its essence. Duds recycled overlay paradise lucidly as an exhibitionist taxing the spirit." Etc. I'm sorely tempted to quote the extent of Mr. Lateef's remarkable musings, but I'm sure you're catching the vibe. Is it a mark of genius not to be able to express oneself in normal language? Could be. Thelonius Monk was anything but crystal clear when he opined; his music, however, was clear enough, if oddly asymmetrical and thoroughly new. Ditto Ornette Coleman. And Anthony Braxton. Anyway, there's a weird way in which these (nonsense?) words make a crazy kind of sense.On to the music. This, as I say, is perhaps Yuseef Lateef's ultimate setting. With twenty-two woodwind and percussion players, plus Karen Elaine Badunin on viola and waterphone, one would think this to be a monumentally unwieldy conglomeration of instrumentalists, to say the least. Made up of the famous (leader Lateef, Adam Rudolph, Bennie Maupin, Alex Cline, Munyungo Jackson) and the unknown--at least to me (Pablo Calogero, Gustavo Bulgach, Fawntice McCain, Tracy Wannomae, Harris Eisenstadt, Miles Shrewbery, Andres Renteria)--this becomes, nevertheless, a remarkably fluid and dexterous ensemble. All told, there are nearly 100 different instruments listed, including such oddities as iya batajon, suling, bamboo trumpet, duckaphone, cruzaphone, selya overtone flute, sonai, marimbula, and hichiriki. The leader himself is listed as playing 10 different instruments. How to get coherence from such a mélange of ethnic instrumentation? Well, this is the kind of thing Lateef has been working toward the last 50-odd years of his musical sojourn. Ever since he lured world-jazz percussionist Adam Rudolph (himself listed as playing eight different instruments here) into his orbit, he's been turning out some remarkable music. One way to look at it is that The Go: Organic Orchestra is merely the ultimate expression of an ongoing half-century process. "Improvisationally conducted" by Rudolph (one supposes in a process not unlike Butch Morris's "conductions"), the Go: Organic Orchestra produces a soundscape unlike any other in the history of music: wild, feral, organic, eerie, eldritch, haunting, suffused with a spooky glory, "earthereal," and just plain weirdly beautiful. When I listen to this music, which I seem to be doing with untoward regularity, I find myself giving thanks for Lateef's uniquely quirky vision, one that certainly would never have found expression had he stuck with big-label record companies.Yuseef Lateef--unsung musical genius. Really, you NEED to hear this music."
Track Listings (6) - Disc #1