In the late 60s and early 70s an increasing number of horn players took funk rhythms on board, and on this album, originally issued on Atlantic SD1525, multi reedman Yusef Lateef used Chuck Rainey and Bernard Purdie, two of the masters of the style.
Except for the last track, all the compositions were by Lateef and mainly refer to places in Detroit. He takes the solos, with solid brass support and occasional strings. His flute leads on three of the numbers, including Bishop School – which moves well and wouldn’t be out of place as the soundtrack to an urban TV drama with its additional strings – and the heavily percussive Eastern Market, where riffing trumpets give way to Lateef’s vocals.
Always slightly idiosyncratic, Lateef plays tissue paper and comb on Raymond Winchester, its Latin feel enabling guitarist Eric Gale to show off his wah-wah pedal.
But the strength, as often with Lateef, is in the tenor playing, from the gutsy Livingston Playground, the leaning towards freedom of Belle Isle, to the slow, yearnful pleading of Russell And Eliot which also features a Gale solo straight out of the blues cupboard.
That Lucky Old Sun is the anomaly – a funk-free quartet with Roy Brooks Jr. replacing Purdie. It’s a smoothly lyrical and sensitive reading, Lateef demonstrating that he had lost none of his appreciation for a ballad and Hugh Lawson given an opportunity to contribute a brief piano solo.
If you’re averse to funk rhythms, this isn’t necessarily for you, but Lateef uses the sub-genre to good effect.
Discography
Bishop School; Livingston Playground; Eastern Market; Belle Isle; Russell And Eliot; Raymond Winchester; Woodward Avenue; That Lucky Old Sun (31.02)
Lateef (ts, f, comb); Danny Moore, Snooky Young, Jimmy Owens, Thad Jones (t); Eric Gale (g); Cecil McBee (b); Chuck Rainey (elb); Norman Pride, Ray Baretto (cga); Hugh Lawson (p); Albert Tootie Heath (pc); Bernard Purdie, Roy Brooks, Jr. (d); William Fischer String Quartet. NYC, 4, 5 February 1969.
Arc Records ARC006
