▸ Last.fm
While his roots were in jazz, reedist Yusef Lateef had little time for rules or convention, using instruments like oboe and bamboo flute to complement his formidable chops on tenor saxophone and flute. This 1961 album isn’t his first foray into non-Western styles, but he crystalized a wondrous yet accessible balance of jazz’s mandate of exploration with Eastern folk exoticism (check out “Ching Miau”). The results are equally stunning when he veers closer to straight jazz on tunes like “Don't Blame Me.”
▸ Wikipedia
Eastern Sounds is a studio album by the jazz multi-instrumentalist and composer Yusef Lateef. It was released in April 1962 through Prestige Records on their Moodsville imprint. The recording was made in September 1961. The album features Lateef's continued exploration of Middle Eastern music, which were incorporated into his version of hard bop with a quartet featuring Barry Harris on piano. The opening track features Lateef on Chinese globular flute, generally called xun. The fusing of musical genres was not a new thing in jazz or for Lateef as his 1957 album Prayer to the East incorporated the shehnai and Middle Eastern influences in playing jazz standards. In addition to original compositions by Lateef, Eastern Sounds includes covers of themes from the films Spartacus and The Robe, both of which have been sampled by producer Nujabes.
| 1 | The Plum Blossom | ♡ | 5:04 | Yusef Lateef |
| 2 | Blues for the Orient | ♡ | 5:41 | Yusef Lateef |
| 3 | Ching Miau | ♡ | 3:20 | Yusef Lateef |
| 4 | Don’t Blame Me | ♡ | 4:57 | Dorothy Fields / Jimmy McHugh |
| 5 | Love Theme From Spartacus | ♡ | 4:15 | Alex North / Terry Callier |
| 6 | Snafu | ♡ | 5:42 | Yusef Lateef |
| 7 | Purple Flower | ♡ | 4:32 | Yusef Lateef |
| 8 | Love Theme From the Robe | ♡ | 4:02 | |
| 9 | The Three Faces of Balal | ♡ | 2:24 | Yusef Lateef |
Links
- Folder:
R:\__Jazz\_Y\Yusef Lateef\1961. Yusef Lateef - Eastern Sounds (Craft, Remastered 2023)[TR24][24-192] - Explorer: Open folder
- AllMusic: https://www.allmusic.com/album/MW0000311786
Credits
Bass — Ernie Farrow Rabab — Ernie Farrow Composed By — Yusef Lateef Drums — Lex Humphries Piano — Barry Harris Recorded By — Rudy Van Gelder Supervised By — Esmond Edwards Tenor Saxophone — Yusef Lateef Oboe — Yusef Lateef Flute — Yusef Lateef
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