LISTEN · DISCOVER · CONNECT
Yusef Lateef | Essential albums and listening guide
Explore Yusef Lateef through Eastern Sounds. Discover what to listen for and follow related styles to your next record.
Yusef Lateef
Meet the artist
A multi-instrumentalist who brought flute, oboe and other instrumental colours into jazz. His interest in musical traditions beyond the United States expanded the language of his ensembles. Saxophone, flute and oboe create different landscapes within his music.
Blues and modern jazz remain foundations for an interest in instruments and melodies from other regions. Changing the instrument also changes the breath and shape of improvisation, beyond adding an exotic color. Short themes and quiet pieces retain attentive tension. Timbre and melodic movement offer a direct way into his border-crossing musical imagination.
Where to start listening
On Eastern Sounds, notice how the quality of breath changes with each instrument, and follow melody through those contrasting colors.
1961Eastern Sounds
Yusef Lateef
Yusef Lateef's quartet explores contrasting wind-instrument colours, including tenor saxophone, flute and oboe. Clear melodies connect the varied textures of this 1961 recording.
Open this album in the Atlas →
Years follow the Atlas catalogue. Recording dates, original release dates and digital reissue dates may differ.