Live at Pep's [Live]

Yusef Lateef | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 26, 1993)
• Original Release Date: 1964
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Label: Grp Records
• ASIN: B000003N6W
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #195,492 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #36 in Music > World Music > Africa > Zimbabwe

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More sweet jazz from Lateef, the Master, July 17, 2002

By 

Paul J. Escamilla "sentient being" (NYC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Live at Pep's (Audio CD)

I continue to be amazed at how unknown and underrated Lateef is. I've only recently discovered him, and I have loved just about every second of music I've heard on his albums.

Nobody, and I mean nobody, plays with more soul and delicacy than Lateef. He may not be as far out as Coltrane or Dolphy or Coleman, but he plays with all the passion that they do. And with a beauty of phrasing and a note selection that is like honey to my ears.

If you want jazz music that is soulful, sweet, melodic and gorgeous, you can do no better than an album like this one from Yusef Lateef.

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Earthy set, June 22, 2000

By 

Tyler Smith (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Live at Pep's (Audio CD)

"Live at Pep's" memorializes a 1964 Lateef performance at the then-famous Philadelphia lounge. The set features Lateef's exotic sounds on oboe and wood flute, his rooted-in-the-earth blues playing on alto and the fine trumpet stylings of the late Richard Williams. If there's a complaint, it's that some of the tunes are too brief.

Lateef's ability to manage the recalcitrant double reed of the oboe is immediately demonstrated on "Sister Mami," where he rides herd over a sinuous, whining line that manages to sound bluesy and Eastern at the same time. Williams contributes a great, flashy trumpet break, but it doesn't last long enough.

There's plenty of blues throughout, the best being "Number 7" and "12 Tone Blues." The former is a kind of blues trilogy that goes through some interesting changes and features some fine harmonizing by Lateef and Williams and nice work by the underrated Mike Nock on piano.

Lateef is not the most technically gifted player around, but his playing has lots of soul and emotion and like Rahsaan Roland Kirk, he's never been afraid to stretch the boundaries of jazz with new instrumentation and incorporation of nontraditional influences. And any recording that gives us another taste of Richard Williams is to be valued. Good album from one of jazz's solid citizens.

4.0 out of 5 stars soulful and hip, March 22, 2011

By 

C. C. Peterson "ecological physiologist" (Hempstead NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Live at Pep's (Audio CD)

I listened to this yesterday and stopped by here to remind myself who the trumpet player was. I agree with Tyler's review--Lateef had a unique and personal blend of soulful and hip (sort of a more-outside-and-on-tenor version of Cannonball Adderley, for whom Lateef worked in the early 60s). This is great bluesy/advanced jazz music and I too wanted only to hear these guys stretch out a bit more.

[I happen to know that the 2nd volume is 'obtain'able with a little google-fu and I'm lookng forward to hearing that too.]