“It will soon be axiomatic, if it is not already, that there is a close relationship between American and Near Eastern improvisation music. For the past two or three years of his professional life, John Coltrane has devoted much of his time and energy to dramatizing that relationship. Although there had been attempts at the same thing before Coltrane - Yusef Lateef’s being one of them - it takes someone of Coltrane’s name and stature to awaken listeners to what their ears alone might have told them.
“And then, of course, this is a Moodsville album. To those accustomed to verbal rather than musical distinctions, the presence of Lateef on the Moodsville label will immediately signify that Lateef has pulled in, has become more easily palatable. And, to support this contention, there are two selections from Hollywood motion picture scores.
“Not at all - at least, not at all to this listener, who is at the very least as subjective as the next, if not more so. From the aural evidence of this album, I would suspect that Yusef Lateef has come to the core of what interests him in Eastern music, and is now presenting it in its simplest, most unadorned form. Such a presentation is often the mark of someone who finally knows what he is doing; I suspect that is the case here.
“At the time of this recording, Lateef was a member of a working unit called the Yusef Lateef-Barry Harris Quartet. That was about six months prior to the writing of these notes, but the vicissitudes of jazz are such that since then, Lateef has played with Charles Mingus and Julian ‘Cannonball’ Adderley. As these notes are written, Lateef is in Flint, Michigan with Adderley, and our brief telephone conversation underscored only a few of the points that this record is capable of making.
“If Lateef remains with Adderley, his music may reach a wider audience than it has previously, for Adderley is one of the most publicly fashionable of musicians, and there are undoubtedly many people who will hear Yusef only because he is a part of that unit. On the other hand, he is playing most of the several instruments at his command in that group, and may make his own impact upon it, if only through sound alone.
“But that has nothing to do with this record, which was made at a particular time under a particular set of circumstances, and is perfectly capable of standing by itself. The subsequent peregrinations of Lateef are only of interest here because the recording indicates that all information about him will soon be of interest.
“The idea of the album, as he tells it, was to have an Oriental feel. Thus, one find the two themes from motion pictures. They are both love themes; one from ‘Spartacus’, the other from ‘The Robe’. It should come as no surprise to anyone by now that the top Hollywood composers who receive such assignments as these are able to reproduce the aura of music from the time and place called for; that is why they are hired. What -is- surprising, though, is that Lateef has the skill and naïveté to take such work at its face value and imbue it with an honest intent and feeling which might very well have never been present in the original. Particularly interesting in this respect is the ‘Spartacus’ music, a lovely melody with harmonic implications that make it, in the hands of these four musicians, one of the most memorable pieces of a memorable set.
“Of the nine pieces presented here, there is only one which will be familiar to the average listener. That, of course, is ‘Don’t Blame Me’. It deserves special comment because it is the most basic performance on the album: basic because it is a standard, basic because Lateef plays tenor saxophone on it - the reed instrument from which jazz reedmen start, and to which they return again, no matter what their intermittent flirtations with flutes, oboes, etc. might be. To revert to subjective emotionalism, it is obvious from the first phrase that this is a jazz performance: the melody is going to be re-created by a musician who is using it only as a basis for mood and harmony. As happens in the best of such performances - and such a performance has to be spontaneous; perhaps Lateef could not reproduce it again if he wanted to - it makes something new and superior out of the original that will never be duplicated. The piano solo here is especially interesting. Barry Harris, when he first came to New York from Detroit (the same route traveled by Lateef), made his reputation as one of the best of the players in the idiom of Bud Powell. But it is not Powell we hear in this solo; it is a solo that could have been played by a more obviously romantic Thelonious Monk. Thus, we get not only a greater insight into Harris’s origins, but we all learn a little more about the origins of Powell himself. Obviously, Monk is a more basic musician than Powell, and the solo (which is the best of Harris I have ever heard) teaches a valuable lesson in the importance of such basics.
“The first of Lateef’s compositions on the record has its own lesson to teach about basics and the opportunity that exists to create within a strict discipline. ‘The Plum Bloss’, as its title hints, is written for and played upon a Chinese globular flute. The instrument, which is twelve hundred years old and made of clay, was found by Lateef in New York’s Chinatown after he had become interested enough to look for one after reading about it in a book on Chinese music. The instrument is, in Lateef’s words, ‘about the size and shape of a grapefruit, with a hole on top and five holes scattered promiscuously on the surface.’ The instrument has only a five-note range, and has a sound similar to that obtained by blowing into a pop bottle. Not only the tune, but Lateef’s solo, are within the limitations of that five-note range, a condition you will probably not notice until you have thoroughly enjoyed the track.
“‘Blues for the Orient’, also by Lateef, alternates straight 4/4 choruses with those in more Oriental rhythm. Although many unusual instruments have recently been introduced into jazz, this is the first successful oboe blues I have ever heard, and it has the added advantage of an unusually attractive line which could be picked up with profit by many musicians who are concerned with this line of development. It is, for this listener, the most attractive track on the set.
“‘Chinq Miau’ (aka ‘Ching Miau’) get its title from the name of a scale in Chinese music. Since Chinq is close to both the French and Spanish words for five, one wonders if the 5/4 time signature did not also play a part in the titling.
“‘Snafu’ is a hard-tenor excursion in the general manner of Rollins and Coltrane. It is the most visceral track on the set, and shows a side of the Lateef nature much more often revealed in person than on this LP.
“‘Purple Flower’ is a gentle ballad (an Oriental version of ‘Passion Flower’?) that shows the ballad artistry of Lateef within the framework of an original piece.
“The final track, ‘The Three Faces of Balal’, was written for a friend of Yusef’s who is the father of twin girls. The twins, and Balal’s wife, are the three faces. On this piece and ‘The Plum Blossom’, bassist Ernie Farrow abandons his usual instrument for the Indian rabat.
“Lateef announces himself pleased with the album; when we spoke, he was happy and slightly surprised that I liked it as much as I did. Such surprise is natural in men who finally do what they really want; Lateef will surprise the jazz public in this set; it would be nice if they surprised him with acceptance.” (Joe Goldberg. From the liner notes.)
Performers: Yusef Lateef (t-sx/fl/oboe/xun), Barry Harris (pi), Ernie Farrow (bs/rabat), Lex Humphries (dr)
A1. The Plum Blossom
A2. Blues For The Orient
A3. Chinq Miau
A4. Don't Blame Me
B1. Love Theme From 'Spartacus'
B2. Snafu
B3. Purple Flower
B4. Love Theme From 'The Robe'
B5. The Three Faces Of Balal
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