Customer Reviews

Cry Tender

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a phenomenal Yusaf Lateef set from the height of his golden age, and it is quite possibly his greatest LP.

This inspired 1959 effort was the first time that Yusef Lateef brought his oboe into the recording studio, and he uses it here to great effect, along with his masterful playing of flute and tenor sax. This is dark, lyrical music which explores Eastern sounds, and the full power of bop to be something beautiful - even mystical - while retaining a cultured, cosmopolitan air. While a number of tracks are essentially straight-ahead jazz, several use bop as a departure point from which to search for something softer and more otherworldly. This is not some sort of new-age garbage, however, and it is certainly not some corny excursion into easy-listening exotica. This is sophisticated, artful music, simultaneously spiritual and urbane, and it is supremely pleasing. There is a hushed, nocturnal quality to much of this work, and even some of the more swinging tracks such as "The Snow Is Green," are virtually aglow with a dreamlike elegance. A lively tune such as "Ecaps" might take us straight to the jazz club late on a Saturday night in 1959, but it retains the enchanting lustre which Lateef has given the entire program.

In 1961, Lateef would release the gorgeous LP "Eastern Sounds," which delves somewhat further into the use of exotic instruments and Eastern concepts, and even further away from bop. "Eastern Sounds" is Lateef's best-known recording. Cry!-Tender is not simply some stepping stone on the way to somewhere else, however, but a complete and fascinating vision all its own. I feel that Cry!-Tender is at least the equal of "Eastern Sounds," and I find it to be the more sophisticated and refined of the two. If you think that John Coltrane was the first to seriously venture from bop into Eastern music, you've got quite a wonderful surprise waiting for you with either title. If you want to hear bop imbued with an ethereal beauty, Cry!-Tender will be phenomenally rewarding.

Lonnie Hillyer - trumpet
Hugh Lawson - piano
Herman Wright - bass
Frank Gant - drums

Playing time is 37:10

If you enjoy this, you're in luck, as Lateef crafted a great number of excellent LPs around this time, including (but not limited to):

* "Jazz Mood" (1957)
* "Jazz For The Thinker" (1957)
*"Before Dawn" (1957)
*"The Last Savoy Sessions" (four 50s LPs: "The Dreamer," "Prayer to the East," "Jazz and the Sounds of Nature," and "The Fabric of Jazz")
*"Into Something" (1961)
*"The Three Faces of Yusef Lateef" (1962)

That's not all - there are other fine Lateef records, but I can honestly say that those I've listed are, for all intents and purposes, perfect works.

If you enjoyed Yusef Lateef's 'Eastern Sounds' this album fits very well with the mood and experimentation there. His oboe playing is just a little bit unsteady here, whereas (a couple years later) he is masterful in 'Eastern Sounds.'

How to describe him: sort of a Miles Davis kind of guy -- not the greatest, speediest technical master, but on another level in matters of taste and mood creation -- but with a wider or differently ranging musical taste. I.e., inspired by the Middle and Far East. Anyway, gotta have you some Lateef! Start with 'Eastern,' and then I bet you'll want more, like I did.

I used to have a membership to emusic, and I happened to read an article by a modern jazz sax player from Detroit (name escapes me) and he got to talking about the long gone jazz scene and Lateef. He lists his favorite albums by him and this was one of them. I'd make some crazy mixes from the stuff I was able to download and some just didn't fit right. I downloaded this one, but that just wasn't enough reason to burn a cd, so I randomly chose Eastern sounds and made it a 2fer. Full cd of jazz, let's see how it pans out...not only do the two albums go perfectly together on one cd, it genuinely feels like they're two parts of the same album with one part smoothly moving in the direction of world music. No other comp I've done has gone together more smoothly, even other Lateef 2fers (although they were still good). It's just cool that others feel the two work so brilliantly together when I happened upon it by chance. Smooth work with suave dexterity and tasteful arrangements mark his works and these fit together wonderfully because of this and his propensity to switch up the instruments from track to track. An interesting concert would've been a double bill with Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Two versatile and talented players, bandleaders, performers, but two very different individuals as well.