This 4-CD box set captures the complete 1957 sessions of Yusef Lateef's album "Yusef's Mood" with Hugh Lawson. The album features a unique blend of jazz, blues, and Middle Eastern music, and this box set includes all the recordings from those sessions. The CDs are in the format of a box set and were released by Fresh Sound Records. The album includes performances by Ernie Farrow, Louis Hayes, Wilbur Harden, Oliver Jackson, Yusef Lateef, Curtis Fuller, and Hugh Lawson. This is a must-have for any jazz enthusiast and a rare find for collectors.

Personnel:

Yusef Lateef (ts, fl, vcl, assorted instruments), Curtis Fuller (tb), Wilbur Harden (flh, tambourine), Hugh Lawson (p, metalphone, ocarina), Ernie Farrow (b), Louis Hayes, Oliver Jackson (d)

 

4CD Set, 32 page book-let

Digitally Remastered 24-Bit / 96 kHz

 

In 1950, after a year on tour with Dizzy Gillespies band, Yusef Lateef returned to Detroit, the city where he had grown up as a jazz musician. With his powerfully preaching tenor sax tone and fluent, driving style he established himself as an influential presence in the Motor City scene, forming his own quintet in 1955. He made his first recordings as a leader in 1957, a productive year for him, as this gripping 4-CD set reveals.

 

On it he plays tenor and flute with a compelling directness and overpowering honesty, surrounded by a nucleus of Detroiters like Curtis Fuller, Ernie Farrow, Louis Hayes, Oliver Jackson, Wilbur Harden and, especially, Hugh Lawson, whose rolling, two-handed piano is as exciting in solo as it is in his intelligent comping. The entire group plays in inspired fashion, speaking authoritatively for the Detroit jazz scene.

 

TRACKLIST

CD 1:

01. Beauregard (Lateef) 3:36

02. OBlues (Lateef) 9:12

03. Happyology (Lateef) 11:16

04. Midday (Lateef) 7:54

05. Polarity (Lateef) 7:05

06. Ameena (Lateef) 7:09

07. Space (Lateef) 5:54

08. Metaphor (Lateef) 8:07

09. Morning (Lateef) 10:36

10. The Beginning (Lateef) 4:10

 

CD 2:

01. G. Bouk (Lateef) 10:16

02. Blues In Space (Lateef) 7:06

03. Yusef's Mood (Lateef) 8:34

04. Passion (Lateef) 4:06

05. Love Is Eternal (Lateef) 6:32

06. Pikes Peak (Lateef) 5:32

07. Open Strings (Lateef) 6:16

08. Before Dawn (Lateef) 5:28

09. Twenty Five Minute Blues (Lateef) 5:29

10. Chang Chang Chang (Lateef) 2:59

11. Constellation (Parker) 4:49

12. Seulb (Harden) 6:14

13. Sounds Of Nature (Lateef) 3:47

 

CD 3:

01. Song Of Delilah (Young-Livingstone-Evans) 8:22

02. 8540 Twelfth Street (Lateef) 4:25

03. I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good (Ellington) 6:20

04. Check Blues (Lateef) 6:40

05. Prayer To The East (Jackson) 8:18

06. A Night In Tunisia (Gillespie-Paparelli) 9:50

07. Lover Man (Davis-Ramirez-Sherman) 6:38

08. Endura (Lateef) 13:08

09. Love Dance (Baxter) 6:45

10. Sram (Harden) 5:37

11. Gypsy Arab (Harden) 3:26

 

CD 4:

01. Playful Flute (Harden) 4:18

02. Taboo (Lecuona) 9:10

03. Ecaps (Lateef) 6:34

04. All Alone (Berlin) 5:06

05. Anastasia (Newman) 4:13

06. Love And Humour (Lateef) 6:13

07. Buckingham (Lateef) 5:10

08. Lamberts Point (Harden) 4:44

09. Meditation (Lateef) 4:43

10. Mahaba (Lateef) 3:50

11. Minor Mood (Lateef) 9:37

12. Take The 'A' Train (Strayhorn) 11:13

 

The hardcore of these sessions were recorded by Rudy Van Gelder in Hackensack, New Jersey

 

This collection includes the following albums:

"Stable Mates" (Savoy MG 12115)

"Jazz for the Thinker" (Savoy MG 12109)

"Jazz Mood" (Savoy MG 12103)

"Before Dawn" (Verve MG V8217)

"Jazz and the Sounds of Nature" (Savoy MG 12120)

"Prayer to the East" (Savoy MG 12117)

"Jazz is Busting Out All Over" (Savoy MG 12123)

"The Sounds of Yusef" (Prestige P 7122)

"Other SOunds" (New Jazz NJ 8218)

"Cry! Tender" (New Jazz NJ 8234)

 

Personnel:

Yusef Lateef (tenor sax, flute, vocals, assorted instruments), Curtis Fuller (trombone, tambourine, Turkish finger cymbals), Wilbur Harden (flugelhorn, tambourine), Hugh Lawson (piano, metalphone, ocarina), Ernie Farrow (bass, rebob), Louis Hayes (drums, cow bells), Oliver Jackson (drums, chinese gong).

 

Original recordings produced by Ozzie Cadena (Savoy), Norman Granz (Verve) and Bob Weinstock (Prestige & New Jazz).

 

Note: In addition to the standard jazz instrumentation, some compositions, notably for the time, included several near-Eastern ethnic instruments to produce a remarkable blend of oriental harmonies, sounds and effects, superimposed on wailing jazz without compromising its unity or quality. These include the rebob, earth board, argol, tambourine, Chinese gong, finger cymbals, scraped gourd, bells, and other devices, among them a balloon and a 7-up bottle to achieve some uniquely arresting effects.

 

More details and information in the booklet