Customer Reviews

Live at Pep's

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

 

 

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.

"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.

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.]