CiTR

Yusef Lateef (born William Evans in Chattanooga, Tennessee and raised in Detroit) was 80 years old on October 9 2008 and is still teaching/lecturing and performing. Yusef really became prominent to the Jazz community in general when he expanded Cannonball Adderley's Quintet to a Sextet, adding his compositions, his flute and oboe and of course, his mighty tenor saxophone to the Adderley band. After leaving Adderley, he embarked on a career leading his own bands and recording for Impulse,Atlantic and his own label YAL Records.....YAL standing for Yusef Abdul Lateef. Before he settled in New York in 1960 he had led his own groups out of Detroit after graduating from Wayne State University in music. He worked as much as he wanted in the Motor City and came to New York to play the odd engagement but mostly to record for the Savoy,Prestige and New Jazz labels. His one album for Norman Granz' Verve label is tonight's Feature and it's one of Yusef's early triumphs. The recording became a valued collector's item as it was only issued once. It saw CD release in 1998 but is no longer available as it was a limited edition release.
This fine recording has Mr. Lateef on mostly tenor saxophone and on one track on flute. Curtis Fuller is on trombone, the late, underrated pianist is Hugh Lawson,Ernie Farrow is on bass and Louis Hayes, all of 19 years old, is on drums. All, save for one tune by Charlie Parker, are by Lateef and show his wide range of expression. The album is a minor classic and should be re-issued again.