Search - Yusef Lateef :: Blue Yusef Lateef

A 33 year old unresolved puzzle......

Dr.D.Treharne | Exeter, Devon, United Kingdom | 07/26/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"A welcome reissue of the 1968 album. Lateef was able to round up some excellent sidemen for the session including Kenny Burrell on guitar, Blue Mitchell on trumpet and Cecil McBee on Bass. Lateef gets to blow all kinds of instruments including several different kinds of flute, a Taiwan koto and scratcher, as well as tenor sax.He also persuaded The Sweet inspirations to add vocal backing to two tracks ( "Juba Juba" and "Back Home").Most of the tracks survive the test of time. Favourites are "Like it is" on which there's the addition of a string quartet, "Get Over get off and get on", and "Six Miles next door". Also worth the price of admission are the sleeve notes, which are VERY 1968, and include some Lateef poetry. The mystery still resolves around the track "Moon Cup". I bought the album when it was originally released and was somewhat skeptical about Lateef singing.... I thought way back then that there was an element of tongue-in -cheek when he declares in the sleeve notes that its " a tagalog chant. The lyrics are derived from a dialect of the Phillipine Islands". Oh yeh? If there's anybody out there who can confirm or deny whether this is so, you'd make a middle aged man very happy.Me? I think he's making it up as he goes along - but I'd love to be proved wrong!"

THE BLUE YUSEF LATEEF (ATLANTIC RECORDS/1968)

prospero72 | Cox's Creek, Kentucky | 12/28/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"REVIEW: Yusef was a leading exponent of world music long before any such thing was embraced by the jazz/pop/rock community. He incorporates all manner of eastern and oriental instrumentation (such as the koto, bamboo flute, shannie, and tamboura) into his jazz and (in this case) blues mix. His sax playing is impeccable and filled with lovely textures that can be hard and driving one minute then turn cool and exotic the next. "Juba Juba" starts things off with a bang similar to a slave ship drum that builds a slow going, torturous pace leavened only by Yusef's plaintive flute and the background vocal chants of "freedom, freedom, freedom". After such a somber beginning the beautiful "Like It Is" seems a welcome breath of fresh air that is highlighted by a gorgeous string quartet. The r&b workouts "Othelia", "Get Over, Get Off And Get On", "Sun Dog", and "Six Miles Next Door" helps to authenticate Lateef's bluesy excursion while the more truly adventuresome tracks like "Back Home" and the mystical, Chinese odyssey "Moon Cup" weave a magical web of musical enchantment and delight (the latter of which features Yusef, supposedly, scat singing in Chinese!). "THE BLUE YUSEF LATEEF" is absolutely stunning in every conceivable way. As a jazz album it's a milestone, as a blues album it's unique, but as a musical work of art: it is a masterpiece of pure, unadulterated genius. HARSH LANGUAGE: none. VIOLENCE: none. SEXUAL REFERENCES: none. DRUG REFERENCES: none.





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HIT SINGLES: none"