Yusef Lateef RIP

[david weiss]

A great musician of course and a truly beautiful soul......

And if you have doubts don't blame me, blame Sonny Rollins....

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Official-Sonny-Rollins-Page/108462262530510?ref=stream

[jazzbo]

Oh no! Rest in Peace Bill, Gentle Joseph!

[Mike Schwartz]

Preparing for my next on-air shift which falls on Christmas....holiday tunes and farewell to a number of great musicians that passed this year including now Yusef Lateef.

RIP

[king ubu]

Oh dammit no... no, no, no!

This is too sad. I love Lateef's music, have done so since my early teens ... glad I saw him live, at least once.

r.i.p. - eternal thanks for the great music

[bluesoul]

https://twitter.com/blogsupreme/status/415263663751061504

Per NPR, Yusef Lateef's niece confirmed this sad news. RIP.

[king ubu]

http://www.gazettenet.com/home/9933070-95/yusef-lateef-grammy-winning-musician-composer-dies-at-93

[JSngry]

So long to one of the best tenor sounds ever, and to the man who understood what it took of both him and his instrument to make it. Too much given for this to be called a "loss", it's our gain, but still...sad to think that there will be nothing new coming form him who was always looking at the new, and finding it.

Much love, much thanks, and now, rest in peace.

[Steve Reynolds]

RIP, Sir

[J.A.W.]

Lateef's playing wasn't really my cup of tea, but this is sad news.

Edited December 23, 2013 by J.A.W.

[fasstrack]

Ugh. What a year. Still, 93 years is a nice long run. I loved his playing and met him twice-a truly humble and beautiful man.

[king ubu]

Lateef's playing wasn't really my cup of tea, but this is sad news.

You need a new cup

[7/4]

The man lived a long time. RIP.

[J.A.W.]

Lateef's playing wasn't really my cup of tea, but this is sad news.

You need a new cup

I'm afraid that won't do the trick I've tried since the 1960s and it never really worked for me.

[king ubu]

Lateef's playing wasn't really my cup of tea, but this is sad news.

You need a new cup

I'm afraid that won't do the trick I've tried since the 1960s and it never really worked for me.

Hard for me to wrap around my mind about that ... his playing is very touching and direct to me. Straight to the heart of it (and of me, too). But vive la différence and all that ...

Edited December 24, 2013 by king ubu

[J.A.W.]

Lateef's playing wasn't really my cup of tea, but this is sad news.

You need a new cup

I'm afraid that won't do the trick I've tried since the 1960s and it never really worked for me.

Hard for me to wrap around my mind about that ... his playing is very touching and direct to me. Straight to the heart of it (and of me, too). But vive la différence and all that ...

The main reason is that I really dislike his saxophone tone, but I'm not too fond of his playing on other instruments either.

[mjzee]

Yes, RIP. The hip priest (imam?) of eclecticism. There was no one like him in jazz.

[Leeway]

He always seemed the essence of cool to me, and he made jazz look like an adventurous and fascinating trip (which it is). From what I can tell, many others felt the same way. Thanks and RIP.

[ElginThompson]

RIP

[JSngry]

I guess "liking" a tone is subjective, but objectively, you'd be hard pressed to find anybody who had more control over the sonics of the tenor. All the manipulations he'd do to notes, the tone stayed perfectly centered, the pitch totally true (even on the "in between" notes. A lot of people did "those things", but I'll be damned if I can think of anybody who did all of them that well. Nothing, and I mean, nothing, happened in his sound unless he put it there.

Ask any tenor player who the master of open side key fingerings is, and if they don't say Yusef Lateef, they're either being silly or else just don't know any better. Those notes are supposed to sound "different" than regular fingerings, but Lateef made them sound different in color only. Most guys, there's a change in pitch, or density of tone, or direction of the sound column, something. Not Lateef. He could play the tenor like it had a slide on it, and in pretty much any register using pretty much any set of fingerings. And with a big, fat, full sound that came from the body, not the equipment. Subjectivities aside, when it comes down to the physics of the tenor, the guy was a true giant. He did well on oboe & flute, but that tenor, yeah, as far as the science of the tenor goes, this guy was at the top of the pyramid.

I get that there's individual taste that comes into play, but past that, there is objective mastery of a certain approach to an instrument, and by that set of criteria, Yusef Lateef was an unquestionable master. Let there be no disputing that part of it.

[Mike Schwartz]

I've always loved his flute playing.....

[jazzbo]

Thanks for that perspective as a saxophonist Jim. I've always felt Lateef was a master, and always loved his sound and the fluidity of his ideas and tone. I remember first hearing him: I bought a Charlie Parker lp on Charlie Parker records, only it wasn't Charlie Parker on the grooves, even though each side's label said it was. It took me some time back then to discover that it was really Yusef Lateef's Charlie Parker Records album, and I found that by picking up one of his Savoy sides and recognizing that sound, then seeking out all the other Savoys, Riversides, Impulse, Atlantic. . .I grabbed a lot of Lateef and I still cherish them. Reading of his death I was thinking of "Lover Man" on Savoy's "Prayer to the East" LP. Just six and a half minutes of some of the best tenor playing I've ever heard.

Edited December 24, 2013 by jazzbo

[Teasing the Korean]

He is one of only a few artists whose LPs I will always buy when I stumble across them.

RIP.

[Hardbopjazz]

Wow, what a major loss. RIP Mr. Lateef.

[jeffcrom]

Sigh....

[GA Russell]

RIP. To my knowledge, he introduced to America one of my favorites, pianist Mike Nock. I'll have to pull out my Live at Pep's CD.