YUSEF LATEEF

ALIGHT UPON THE LAKE LIVE AT THE JAZZ SHOWCASE

Resonance Records

Yusef Lateef, tenor saxophone/flute/oboe/composer; Kenny Barron, piano/composer; Bob Cunningham, bass; Albert “Tootie” Heath, drums.

Yusef Lateef begins Disc #3 of his triple set album release reciting a love poem.  The ‘live’ audience bursts into appreciative applause after this recitation.  Then the music begins.  The song is a Lateef original titled “Golden Goddess” featuring Lateef on flute.  Then Kenny Barron solos, pushed forward by the power drums of Tootie Heath and the solid bass of Bob Cunningham. They follow this with the familiar strains of “Straighten Up and Fly Right” that was so popular for Nat King Cole many years ago. As usual, the tune swings!

Leave it to me to start listening to this wonderful package of music with the last disc first.  No worries, all three discs are packed with excellent music.  I remember sitting in awe at a non-alcoholic jazz lounge in Detroit called the Minor Key. I was just sixteen years old and listening to Yusef Lateef play.  I saw some of the best jazz musicians in the business including Art Blakey, Rasheed Ali, Kenny Burrell and many others at the popular Minor Key club. This music brings back those kinds of memories. How could I have guessed that years later, I would personally meet and make music with the great Tootie Heath in California. He played on my first jazz vocal album. Working with Tootie was a blessing and a thrill. Listening to this music, plucked from 1975, reflects the power and innovation of all four of these amazing players during a prime time in their musical careers.

The third disc closes with “Yusef’s Mood.” Barron plays a boogie-woogie piano and the blues is buried deep in this song. Like a soulful heartbeat, Tootie Heath shuffles his drums, locking the rhythm into place. Cunningham’s bass walks hand-in-hand with Heath, while Barron solos wildly. You can hear the excitement in the demonstrative crowd. It’s caught on tape. The quartet takes us from the blues to the church, inserting a gospel piano solo by Barren that has the band on fire!

On Disc 1, It’s a tune by pianist, Kenny Barron, called “The Untitled.”  Surprisingly, this is nearly a thirty-minute song presentation, but there’s never a dull moment. These three discs represent an amazing example of Yusef Lateef’s artistry and diversity. When asked, the iconic Bennie Maupin recalled meeting Lateef in their shared Motown hometown.

“The most important things I learned from him were how to be truthful, to speak your mind creatively and how to live cleanly. He was a wonderful person. Brilliant, forever learning, forever seeking, forever gracious,” Maupin said.

A twenty-eight page booklet is included in this package of historic music.  It includes stories about the artists and Joe Segal, whose Jazz Showcase operation first began as a traveling show in 1947. This popular show developed into the legendary Chicago jazz club. This release celebrates Yusef Lateef in his prime, and his friendship with Joe Segal, often playing at his internationally famous jazz room, along with the iconic Kenny Barron, Al “Tootie” Heath and Bob Cunningham.

Every song is an exciting piece of jazz history, brought to life on three unstoppable discs that spin out the music and history of an era, never to be forgotten.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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