12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A 33 year old unresolved puzzle......, July 26, 2001
This review is from: Blue Yusef Lateef (Audio CD)
A welcome reissue of the 1968 album. Lateef was able to round up some excellent sidemen for the session including Kenny Burrell on guitar, Blue Mitchell on trumpet and Cecil McBee on Bass. Lateef gets to blow all kinds of instruments including several different kinds of flute, a Taiwan koto and scratcher, as well as tenor sax.He also persuaded The Sweet inspirations to add vocal backing to two tracks ( "Juba Juba" and "Back Home").Most of the tracks survive the test of time. Favourites are "Like it is" on which there's the addition of a string quartet, "Get Over get off and get on", and "Six Miles next door". Also worth the price of admission are the sleeve notes, which are VERY 1968, and include some Lateef poetry. The mystery still resolves around the track "Moon Cup". I bought the album when it was originally released and was somewhat skeptical about Lateef singing.... I thought way back then that there was an element of tongue-in -cheek when he declares in the sleeve notes that its " a tagalog chant. The lyrics are derived from a dialect of the Phillipine Islands". Oh yeh? If there's anybody out there who can confirm or deny whether this is so, you'd make a middle aged man very happy.Me? I think he's making it up as he goes along - but I'd love to be proved wrong!
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