Rabble Without A Cause
Wednesday January 1st, 2014 with Bernard Stepien
Farewell to saxophonist/flutist/oboist/bassoonist Yusef Lateef

The ‘50s were a rather fascinating period for Jazz. It was the decade of an all-out trying-out new things craze that prepared the ‘60s big bang. Tenor saxophonist Yusef Lateef, then a straight ahead Be Bopper wanted to take Jazz into new directions. What was Jazz before? Pop music? Straight-ahead entertainment? Lateef certainly steered his music away from pop music into classical levels. To some, his deep commitment to the Blues and World Music could indicate otherwise if it wasn’t precisely that he raised the Blues and World Music themselves to classical levels. In addition to performing his music, Lateef got extensively involved into writing and publishing his works, thus enabling generations of musician to be blessed by his findings. Lateef was quickly recognised as a composer and got commissioned to compose major works by the European West Deutsche Rundfunk among others. Tenor giants Sonny Rollins and Archie Shepp both praised him and consider him as a major influence to their own styles. Tonight, we will sail through some of his recordings spanning the ‘50 to the ‘70. French Jazz critic from Le Monde wrote this wonderful eulogie: http://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2013/12/26/le-compositeur-et-saxophoniste-yusef-lateef-est-mort_4340129_3246.html Ottawa Citizen Jazz critic Peter Hum assembled a web page with lots of video clips to enjoy: http://blogs.ottawacitizen.com/2013/12/23/rip-yusef-lateef/