Louis Hayes

“When a jazz group is really good, i.e. it has jelled together so that its average level of performance is high enough to mark it from the ordinary and its best level is pure excitement of a high order, every man in it is capable of standing alone and no one man carries the whole burden.

“Thus ‘Every tub on its own bottom’ as the old timers were fond of saying.

“Unaware of this, one might think that Julian ‘Cannonball’ Adderley would be the indispensable element in his group and with his sound absent it would not stand on its own. However, here another Law of Improvisational Music comes into effect. Change any one man and you change the group sound.

“This album is a neat illustration of both of these premises. It is the Julian ‘Cannonball’ Adderley group with Julian absent and it has had a shift in personnel: Yusef Lateef is the saxophonist instead of Julian. The result is an interesting listening experience. The swing and the drive, as well as the cooking feeling of soul, is retained, and yet there is a different flavor to that which is cooked, thanks to the presence of another (and different) personality whose basic recipes are the same but who adds his own touches to them for an end product with different flavor.

“This album, however, is really Lou Hayes’ album; his first as a group leader and it illustrates a very fundamental premise of his musicianship. There’s been a theory long prevalent in jazz circles that drummers make poor group leaders because once on their own with no check rein, they are unable to resist the temptation to dominate. Apparently most of them cannot prevent the drums from running away with it. Yet these same men, placed in a position where someone else has the authority and the responsibility of controlling them, are superb and imaginative musicians.

“Louis Hayes, 21 year old Detroit musician, is an exception to this rule. On his first date as a leader he is, just as he always has been with the groups in which he has worked, the drummer first. An imaginative musician with intelligently constructed solos and with sensitive awareness of what the other musicians are doing at all times, but the drummer for the band above all.

“This didn’t really surprise me, when I first heard the test of this LP. Some months back, I did an interview with Philly Joe Jones, who is really the modern drummer with the most potential influence of any. One of the very few young drummers that Joe would talk about was Louis Hayes. When I asked him to name young drummers who impressed him he named two of his own students and Louis Hayes.

“Although it is quite true, as Philly Joe says, that drums can be played with a snare drum and a cymbal, the modern drummers today, when they are functioning correctly, have added new dimensions to drumming. The maintenance of a steady, pulsating, swinging beat with a deep groove no matter what the timbre of the piece of equipment being played at any instant, the usage of the sounds of the snare, rims, tom-toms and a variety of cymbal tones to pucntuate, reinforce and emphasize what the soloist is doing, is one of the marks of modern drumming. Quick relating to the pitch, the rhythm and the shape of the solo in order to anticipate, set-off, inspire and to contrast with it is another. Governing the cross rhythms and counter rhythms and in turn setting them, like an engineer at a master control panel, is still another. These things take gifts first, gifts and instinct. But for the real growth, the real flowering, they take musical thinking. Louis Hayes has all of these and will one day be among the very top leaders on drums. He’s pushing that level right now.

“On this album he has the assistance of Sam Jones (bass), Barry Harris (piano), Yusef Lateef (sax) and Nat Adderley (cornet). They are sympathetic to his feeling for music, meld together into a single organism when playing with a high degree of flexibility. Lateef contributed ‘Hazing’ while Nat Adderley penned ‘Sassy Ann’; Barry Harris wrote ‘I Need You’ and ‘Backyard’. Julian Adderley contributed ‘Rip De Boom’ and Sammy Red Kyner wrote ‘Teef’.” (Ralph J. Gleason. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Louis Hayes (dr), Nat Adderley (cn), Yusef Lateef (t-sx), Barry Harris (pi), Sam Jones (bs)

A1. Hazing

A2. Rip De Boom

A3. Teef

B1. I Need You

B2. Back Yard

B3. Sassy Ann

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Yusef Lateef - Eastern Sounds

“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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Yusef Lateef - Before Dawn

"“In the past few years, a caravan of impressive young jazzmen have departed from Detroit. Most were born there: all received their jazz apprenticeship in the city of giant industry, the dauntless UAW, and a police chief who tried to ban John O’Hara. It is also a city with strong jazz roots, particularly in the modern idiom. This newest generation of jazzmen took it as natural that they grew up in an inner community of sessions, music talk, and the religion that jazz can become. Their older brothers, those that had them, had also experienced the same milieu. Sonny Stitt knows Detroit as do Thad and Elvin Jones and Billy Mitchell and Art Mardigan.

“The younger corps is composed of musicians who skill, individuality and vigor are rather rare - in complete combination - for jazzmen that young. The wider jazz world has come to recognize, respect and enjoy bassists Paul Chambers and Doug Watkins, guitarist Kenny Burrell, pianist Tommy Flanagan, baritone saxist Pepper Adams, pianist-vibist Terry Pollard (who left before most of those in the paragraph), trumpeter Donald Byrd and drummer Louis Hayes.

“Back home, other jazzmen remain. Pianist Barry Harris, for one, who encouraged and influenced a number of his contemporaries; and an older pianist, Willie Anderson whom most of the Detroit jazz musicians feel could have been one of the few titans.

“One of those who has remained, and has been working for over a year at Klein’s on the west side, one of the few jazz rooms in the city, is Yusef Lateef. Born in Tennessee in 1920, Lateef moved to Detroit with his parents, and went to school in that city. While at Miller High, he became involved with the alto saxophone. It was 1937, and he played alto for a year before switching to tenor. By 1946, he was in New York, a member of Lucky Millinder’s band. Lucky Thompson, another Detroiter, had introduced him to Millinder.

“After playing with Hot Lips Page, Roy Eldridge, Ernie Fields and other units, Lateef (then known as Bill Evans) made a cross-country tour with the Dizzy Gillespie band in 1949. (Discographies indicate, for example, that Evans was on the 1949 RCA Victor ‘Swedish Suite’.) In 1950, Yusef returned to Detroit and worked with various groups until he formed his own quintet in 1955.

“Lateef is intrigued by the possibilities of including what he terms an ‘East Indian-African flavor’ in some of his arrangements; and Lateef plays, as well as tenor, the flute, gourd, tambourine, finger cymbals and arghool (oriental flute). Farrow doubles on the rehab, a one-string guitar-like instrument.

“Lateef admires Sonny Stitt for his technical ability; Billie Holiday for her expression of emotion; Dizzy Gillespie for his creativity; and Charlie Parker for all these qualities. Lateef continues to study, and is currently at Wayne State University with Valter Paole, Assistant Conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

“Kenny Burrell, to many ears including this one the best of the younger guitarists, describes his former Detroit colleague, Lateef, as having ‘a very full sound. There’s lots of body to it. And his approach is individual. It isn’t a thing you can detect immediately, but I’ve been listening to him a long time. You can only vary so much anyway, but as you get to really hear him, you’ll feel a definite style. His thinking, incidentally, is like that of Coleman Hawkins. There are no wasted notes, and he usually builds into logical climaxes. There’s nothing showy in his work; just sincere playing.’

“I would add that Lateef is clearly conversant with modern tenor theory and practice, he also brings Hawkins and Don Byas to mind in the virile romanticism with which he can play (as on ‘Love is Eternal’). His is a strong, driving tenor in whatever context. All of the compositions here are his, and in some places there is a touch of exoticism as on the introduction to ‘Open Strings’ and the closing of ‘Before Dawn’. The flute on the LP is also played by Lateef. A further note about Lateef is by Paul Chambers who says of his playing that it is is ‘very soulful. It’s modern and yet there’s a lot of oldness in it, seasoning. A lot of roots.’

“Trombonist Curtis Fuller, not yet 25, is now in New York where he has interested Miles Davis and other musician-arbiters. Curtis has, it would appear from his playing here, been considerably influenced by J.J. Johnson. In Detroit, he worked with his own group and also with Lateef. Bassist Ernie Farrow, approaching 30, has played with Terry Gibbs, Stan Getz and Lateef. Pianist Hugh Lawson, in his early 20s, is described by Chambers as ‘full of fire and life’ and Burrell notes that Lawson indicates he has heard Flanagan and Barry Harris, and maybe is a little more funky than they. Louis Hayes is only 20; at the age of 19, he was recommended to Horace Silver by Burrell and Chambers. Louis has been a stirring part of the Silver quintet ever since. He is a crisp, stimulating and certainly swinging young drummer who should become a major figure, poll-winning or not poll-winning, before he’s 30.

“It’s difficult to determine the complex factors that make a city like Detroit produce so valuable a contingent of young players in a few years. A primary reason, however, is probably that advanced by Paul Chambers. ‘There was very much more jamming in Detroit than there is, for example, in New York. We’d jam at houses and at clubs. They were the kind of sessions where a lot could be learned. Everybody was closely knitted together, and actually, in the course of time, almost everybody worked with everybody else around town. Certain groups did stick together, but in many cases you could be a leader one night and a sideman the next.

“Kenny Burrell agrees about the fructifying advantages of the pervasive jam session in Detroit during the years of his growth. ‘The spirit seemed to be there,’ he recalls. ‘And in addition to the playing, there has always been, so far as I can remember, a certain amount of people in Detroit that appreciated and tried to promote jazz. There was never a time when no jazz was being played. There was always something happening to keep a man’s spirit up and to give him a chance.

“The musicians themselves were sometimes focal forces in organizing jazz appreciation and study. Burrell, for example, founded the New Music Society in March, 1954, which lasted for nearly three years. Other musicians and dedicated laymen helped in the organization and administration and there were concerts, workshops and other pragmatic jazz activities.

“For those Detroit musicians who remain at home, it’s probably quite heartening to hear of the impact made in this country and abroad by the voices of their former colleagues. And for those who intend eventually to leave, there is the corollary realization that when they do arrive on the Apple or in Los Angeles or elsewhere, other Detroiters have prepared a welcome for them. In other circles it helps establish instant contact to say you’re from Princeton or Mount Holyoke. In the more open terrain of jazz, it still helps these days to say you know Burrell or Chambers or Byrd, because if you do know them and have played with them, the resultant conclusion is that you’re qualified to join in and are apt to know the changes and not be intimidated by the tempo. Detroit has turned into an exacting school for other besides Walter Reuther and his associates.” (Nat Hentoff. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Yusef Lateef (t-sx/fl), Curtis Fuller (tb), Hugh Lawson (pi), Ernie Farrow (bs), Louis Hayes (dr)

A1. Passion

A2. Love Is Eternal

A3. Pike's Peak

A4. Open Strings

B1. Before Dawn

B2. Twenty-Five Minute Blues

B3. Chang, Chang, Chang

B4. Constellation

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Doug Watkins - Soulnik

"Too many fine musicians have been killed in automobile accidents. Clifford Brown, Richie Powell, Stan Haaselgard, Willie Dennis, Eddie Costa ar just some. There are many more. Charlie Parker was lucky to escape with his life in a car crash at the age of 16. Doug Watkins, a superb bassist, had no such luck. In the early hours of February 5, 1962, Doug fell asleep at the wheel of his own car near Holbrook, Arizona. The automobile crossed the highway and rammed head on into an upcoming pick-up truck. Trumpeter Bill Hardman and saxophonist Roland Alexander stepped from the wreck unhurt but Doug Watkins was dead. So ended a brief and brilliant career; the jazz world mourned the loss of one of its most promising young men to what has become an occupational hazard.

"Watkins was born in Detroit on March 2, 1934. He studied at the famous Cass Tech High School where his schoolmates included Paul Chambers (a cousin by marriage) and Donald Byrd. By the age of 16 Doug was studying hard with Gaston Brohan and already doing gigs with pianist Barry Harris. In the summer of 1953 he got his first out-of-town job with the James Moody Band but never actually recorded with the group. He returned to Detroit later and rejoined Barry Harris' Trio which for the next year backed a whole host of visiting stars including Charlie Parker, Stan Getz and Coleman Hawkins.

"In August of 1954 Doug was ready to try New York so he packed his bag and split for the Apple. His first gigs there were with trumpeter Kenny Dorham, a great talent spotter, and through Kenny he was introduced to Art Blakey, Horace Silver and Hank Mobley. These five men soon formed a musical alliance which grew into the Jazz Messengers. The group made its debut at the Blue Notes, Philadelphia, in February, 1955. The following month the unit, minus Dorham, recorded for Blue Note (they had already done a sessions in November, 1954, which produced classics like 'Doodlin'' and 'Creepin' In'). Later in the year, the band was frequently to be heard at the Café Bohemia where two albums by the Messengers were taped 'live' in November.

"The exposure with Blakey, and subsequently in the Horace Silver Quintet, formed in June, 1956, earned Watkins an enviable reputation. He was soon getting his fair share of calls for record dates and all manner of gigs. In the following five years he worked with Jackie McLean, Donald Byrd, Gene Ammons, Sonny Rollins, Pepper Adams, John Coltrane, Paul Quinichette, Chet Baker and many others. He was often to be found with his old friend Byrd and was a member of the quintet the trumpeter took to Paris in late summer, 1958. This outfit, completed by Bobby Jaspar (tenor & flute), Walter Davis Jr. (piano) and Art Taylor (drums) made records on the Continent and played several big festivals. The association with Byrd continued on and off until Doug's death but in the last three years of his life he freelanced widely. A particular favorite of McLean, Watkins worked with Jackie many times also and appeared on several of the saxophonist's albums for Prestige and Blue Note. Doug had an impeccable beat, a real bass sound that would cut through an ensemble without the aid of microphones. Like the English bassist Peter Ind, he got that tone by holding the note down with the left hand and not wasting energy by plucking too hard. Says Ind, 'Most bass players think that if they pull harder with their right hand they're going to get a bigger sound whereas the secret of a sound is in the left hand - that's where you really stop the notes. You can pluck it lightly and it will sing out a mile if you've got the not held down.' You rarely, if ever, hear Watkins' strings vibrating or rattling because he was not one of the 'meaty hands' brigade'.

"Another gift Watkins had was his ability to play exactly the right note in a chord to complement the soloist; he would never clash with what the man up front was doing. He combined well with many different drummers and when his chance to solo came he really took care of business. Doug was not influenced by the style of playing which Scott LaFaro developed in the late 1950s - soloing behind soloists and using extensively the top notes on his strings. When Watkins played it, the bass sounded like a bass. His favorite players were Percy Heath, Ray Brown and Slam Stewart and he came out of that tradition of playing.

"On this album, one of the two made under Watkins' leadership, he does not play bass at all, being featured on cello. He never used it again on record which is a pity because he could have developed into a damn good jazz cellist too. It had always been one of Doug's ambitions to play the cello. Three days before this date, a cello player lent him his instrument. And this was actually the first time he had played it. Watkins told Ira Gitler, 'I usually do these tuned on bass but I wanted a different sound. To me, the cello gets a tone between guitar and piano.' It must be admitted that Watkins on cello was not really comparable, at this stage, with Watkins the bassist. But there is no doubt that Doug took to the instrument right away, just as Oscar Pettiford had done before him. While with Woody Herman, Pettiford fooled around with a cello one day in a music store and that night used it on stage when his moment came to solo! Herman, who knew nothing about this in advance, was flabbergasted. The fingering is not the same on the two instruments, and the positions are smaller. To musicians of the stature of Watkins and Pettiford the technicalities were unimportant; they were just natural players.

"For this date Watkins used several friends from his Detroit days. Pianist Hugh Lawson and bassist Herman Wright are two more products of Cass Tech and both men went to Wayne University, of which multi-instrumentalist Yusef Lateef is another alumnus.

"Lateef plays all his chosen instruments fluently. He did not take his tenor sax to this particular session but alternated with flute and oboe. His flute playing ranks with James Moody's as the most consistent and enjoyable in jazz. He also wails on oboe with power and distinction.

"Always ready to experiment with different instruments, Lateef brings to all his horns great imagination and personality. He is a boss swinger. Lawson has worked with Yusef a great deal through the years. He was in Lateef's group on a regular basis from 1956-60 and has recorded with him several times since. Laweson is one of three outstanding pianists who emerged from Detroit during the fifties. The others were Barry Harris and Tommy Flanagan. Lawson occasionally reminds one of Barry and Tommy, especially the former, but he is really his own man.

"Wright is a steady and reliable bassist, equally facile as an accompanist and soloist. He too has often worked with Lateef and in addition his experience includes stints with James Moody, Sonny Stitt, Terry Gibbs, Billy Mitchel, Terry Pollard and George Shearing. Drummer Lex Humphries has no Detroit associations except that he played the same kind of music as the Detroiters. Lex was born in Rockaway, New York, and, though self-taught, was good enough to play in the groups of Chet Baker and Dizzy Gillespie in the 1950s. In the next decade he was heard with the Farmer/Golson Jazztet, Jackie McLean, Donald Byrd, Duke Pearson and McCoy Tyner. On this recording he plays with brushes throughout and blends in perfectly.

"Half of the material for the session was contributed by Lateef. It is his blues, 'One Guy', which starts the proceedings. The theme is stated in unison by flute and cello. Watkins gets around his unfamiliar axe with apparent east. Lateef takes six choruses, displaying his groovy flute stylings. After a Lawson solo that certainly does bring Barry Harris to mind, Wright plucks three. When Lateef comes back, Doug weaves in and out of the bass and flute lines.

"'Confessin'' is an oldie and a goodie. Doug was definitely not confessin' that he couldn't play cello because he states the melody all by himself. Yusef offers a lovely flute floater and Doug digs it so much he puts in some apt little background comments from time to time. Being a bassist himself, he is careful not to foul up Herman's flow. Doug's own solo is not perfect; there are one or two blemishes, a couple of sour notes, but the essential jazz feeling is there in his adventurous improvisation. Lawson takes an excellent solo and exhibits his pianistic touch.

"'Soulnik', a wry Lateef title that combined the 1960 preoccupations with sputniks and soul, is another blues that walks in on a foot-patting medium tempo. This time Yusef has the oboe in his hands and after Watkins has spun his blue web, Lateef comes swooping down from overhead like a night owl. His sound is eerie and lonely and his solo, as Ira Gitler commented, is 'pregnant with feeling'. Lawson and Wright keep up the good work and Humphries, who drums splendidly on this track, makes the optimum use of his opportunities in the fours section.

"'Andre's Bag' has both the melancholy and fire of mid-European folk music. But after Watkins' haunting melody statement which is aided by discreet prompts from Lawson, the jazz atmosphere is established. Yusef gives a little cry on flute and then the motor (Herman and Lex) starts to turn smoothly under Doug. A purring flute contribution by Yusef follows. Humphries slightly stiffens the beat to add a spice of tension to Lawson's effort. Lex is the last soloist and the theme, with a bridge not unlike that in 'A Night in Tunisia', does not re-appear. The cut fades with Doug and Yusef singing their own song.

"'I Remember You' is a good tune that Bird used to like playing. He recorded it too and so have a number of other jazzmen, including trumpeter Red Rodney. In this brisk version, cello and flute spit the theme. The order is Doug, Yusef (pure and pulsating), Lawson (fresh and flowing). Doug returns for half a chorus and Yusef resumes the melodic thread over the bridge with Watkins carrying the performance out on a neo-bop closing figure.

"By way of a change, this particular set concludes with a slow tempo treatment of 'Imagination', a title that describes a quality all the participants shared. Yusef tenderly unwraps the melody with Doug complementing the process. Watkins takes a solo of considerable warmth and grace. Lateef steals in gently as Doug and Herman pluck and bow the piece to an emotional ending. Watkins has the last word with one of Bird's favourite licks.

"Doug Watkins came before the era of electric bass and solo-mad bass players. He was still a young man and would probably have experimented with electric models but I kind of think regular bass would have stayed his first love. However he might have done more with the cello. He told Gitler he wanted to 'go into it more deeply'. Unfortunately, in the 21 months he had left Doug never did do anymore cello playing, on record at least. Time ran out on that highway which should have taken Doug to San Francisco and a reunion with Elmo Hope and Philly Joe Jones, whose group he was to have joined at the Jazz Workshop. 'Down Beat' but it succinctly in its March 15, 1962 headline. 'THE ROAD CLAIMS ANOTHER VICTIM.' And jazz lost a true craftsman who, whether on bass or cello, played with -imagination-.

"Pianist Norman Simmons, discussing the advances made on bass in the last few years, said recently, 'The jazz player today has advanced that instrument to unbelievable degrees. However he is somewhat like the drummer in the attention he gives to the newness of his development. The problem being with both that they tend to relinquish any responsiblity for the pulse of the music.'

"Though a young man, Doug Watkins was musically very mature and could have coped with the problem of being responsible and progressive at the same time. Simmons added, 'This is the upright bassist's day; he deserves it.' Too bad that Doug Watkins, one of the best bassists of his generation, did not live to see that day." (Mark Gardner, October 1970. From the liner notes to the 1970 Prestige reissue.)

Performers: Doug Watkins (cello), Yusef Lateef (fl/ob), Hugh Lawson (pi), Hermann Wright (bs), Lex Humphries (dr)

A1. One Guy

A2. Confessin'

A3. Soulnik

B1. Andre's Bag

B2. I Remember You

B3. Imagination

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Yusef Lateef - Roots Run Deep

Recorded in 2004 and released the year before his death in 2013, 'Roots Run Deep' is an incredibly intimate and haunting collection of music and spoken word, one that is a rare insight into the thoughts of a man with a unique connection to the American musical tradition. The impression is that we are allowed into Lateef's innermost thoughts: whether the fascinatingly jocular musings on 'Cream Puff' or the haunting vocals and lyricism of the theme 'Roots Run Deep'. As the final generation most deeply connected to this music passes on, this look inside the mind of an American musical giant is welcome and to be treasured. Lateef pines on 'Interior Monologue': "There is no escape. Death will overtake us all some day."

Performer: Yusef Lateef (t-sx, fl, pi, vo)

1. Roots Run Deep I
2. Cream Puff
3. Where Is Lester?
4. Motherless Child
5. Goodbye
6. Interior Monologue
7. Roots Run Deep II

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