Yusef Lateef (1920-2013) Few jazz musicians balanced intellect and instinct, head and heart, as effectively or seamlessly as Yusef Lateef, After garnering acclaim from his hundreds of improvisatory recordings on a wide array of instruments, Lateef also inspired generations of students through his decades of teaching at the University of Massachusetts. His prescience and influence as a player and composer were mighty, and often go overlooked, maybe because his innovations resulted in such likable, lucid music, based often in sheer melody and modal groove. Lateef is also considered one of the great masters and innovators in the African American tradition of autophysiopsychic music - that which comes from one’s spiritual, physical and emotional self.
Performed by Olivier Stankiewicz & Alasdair Beatson at LSO St Luke’s, 2020.