YUSEF LATEEF “Alight Upon the Lake: Live at the Jazz Showcase”

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ARTIST

Yusef Lateef

ALBUM TITLE

“Alight Upon the Lake: Live at the Jazz Showcase”

LABEL

Resonance
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Three CDs, 170 minutes of intense music that nevertheless retains a keen sense of variety in its structures and atmospheres: this is what we get from the latest Resonance release, thanks in no small part to the three musicians accompanying the Chattanooga-born multi-instrumentalist, who gives them exceptionally generous room to express themselves.

There are just nine tracks in all, each of considerable length, as one might expect (two approach the half-hour mark). This allows for the development of remarkably rich, multifaceted and intricately constructed musical architectures, particularly on “Eboness”, “Inside Atlantis”, “Opus 1 & 2″ and “Golden Goddess”. Underpinning these performances is a compositional approach (four pieces are by Lateef, two by Barron) that reaches well beyond certain all-too-familiar, deeply ingrained concert conventions. The result is a wonderfully rounded portrait of Lateef and his fellow musicians, all formidable artists in their own right.

To say much more would, we feel, take something away from the many discoveries this generously filled box set has to offer. The sound quality is excellent. All that remains is to enjoy the music.

Alberto Bazzurro

* Although the oboe is credited on the back cover, which also features a photograph of Lateef playing the instrument, we could not identify a single passage in which it can actually be heard.

DISTRIBUTED BY

resonancerecords.org

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