“The Fabric Of Jazz” is an album by Yusef Lateef, recorded on June 11, 1959, at Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey, and originally released on Savoy Records (MG-12151). The Jazz Workshop Vinyl reissue as a 180-gram audiophile LP (JW-082) revives this record with remastering that highlights Rudy Van Gelder’s warm sound. The lineup features Yusef Lateef (tenor saxophone, flute, oboe), Mike Nock (piano), Ernie Farrow (bass), and Lex Humphries (drums). The album includes Lateef’s originals like Moon Tree and Taboo, plus standards. The music is hard bop with Eastern motifs, with Lateef switching instruments to create unique textures. The Jazz Workshop reissue is valued for its pristine sound and the recording’s rarity. “The Fabric Of Jazz” is an early Lateef masterpiece, foreshadowing his world music experiments.
Yusef Lateef (October 9, 1920 – December 23, 2013) was an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, and educator, a pioneer of world jazz. Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and raised in Detroit, he started on tenor saxophone before mastering flute, oboe, and other instruments. In the 1950s, he worked with Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Mingus, but gained fame as a leader, integrating Eastern and African musical elements into jazz. Lateef was an innovator whose albums like Eastern Sounds (1961) expanded the genre’s boundaries. His style blended hard bop with exotic harmonies and deep spiritual undertones. He later taught at universities, earning a doctorate. Lateef died at 93, leaving a legacy as a jazz visionary.
TRACKLIST
Side One:
1. The Dreamer (Yusef Lateef) 6:50
2. Arjuna (Yusef Lateef) 7:37
3. Moon Tree (Yusef Lateef) 5:46
Side Two:
1. Half Breed (Yusef Lateef) 8:36
2. Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man (Kern-Hammerstein) 8:01
3. Valse Bouk (Yusef Lateef) 4:17
Personnel:
Yusef Lateef and His Jazz Quintet
Yusef Lateef, tenor sax; Terry Pollard, piano; William Austin, bass; Frank Gant, drums; Bernard McKinney, euphonium.
Recorded at Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey, on June 11, 1959
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