Yusef Lateef at the Walker

Yusef Lateef with Douglas Ewart, Roscoe Mitchell and Adam Rudoulph tonight at the Walker playing to a sold out theater. We were lucky, because it was general sitting and we arrived late. However, nobody was sitting on the first row, so that's where we ended. Very close to the action. 

This was a fantasti, if somewhat strange concert. I was not familiar with Yusef Latif's music and  didn't know what to expect. I assumed it would be some type of recognizable jazz. How wrong!. The music they play sits in a fine line between noises and music. It is athmospheric and primitive as well as complex. Melodies are very sparce. Most of the music is very percusive, even the brass instruments they use.

The first piece, in particular, was very special. It started as isolated tones and sounds coming from one instrument or another.. Bells, woden flutes, a sax, and a primitive string instrument. It was almost like hearing the begining of music taking place. As if primitive people had discovered that they could make sounds with wood and rocks and shells (not that those instruments were being used) and were begining to make disparate noises and all of a sudden discovered that some of this could produce a rythm. The piece almost achieves a melody at one point, then withdraws from it again.

short Recording

Yusef Lateef photo: Micahel DiDonna