Friday jazz profile: Yusef Lateef

 I'm on sort of a world jazz kick right now, which has me revisiting the great Yusef Lateef.  Jazz is a genre notoriously difficult to define, which is part of what I appreciate about it, and one of those most responsible for this intractability is Lateef.  Consider "Plum Blossom," the first track from his finest album, Eastern Sounds.

Notice several things.  First, Lateef plays a flute.  Lateef was a multi-instrumentalist, like a few of my favorites, and he was among the few to show the potential for the flute in jazz, but on "Plum Blossom," he uses both the tonality of the instrument, and some rhythmic changes to give us some of the earliest and best East-West hybrids.  He is improvising in a style that draws on bebop, but the rhythm and melody come from... Asia.  Why not?  Apply the improvisational technique to a different type of melody, and you have something new.  A lot of jazz is going this way, and Lateef wasn't even pushing it that far.  Very gentle work on the flute, which suits the piece.

Gotta love Yusef Lateef.