Psychicemotus will be the quintessential Yusef Lateef album title – a phrase of his personal invention referencing the symbiotic components of his apply: the cerebral (psychic) and the emotional (emotus). A multi-instrumentalist, composer, bandleader, scholar/educator, creator and visible artist, Lateef (1920-2013) emerged from the fertile Detroit bebop lineage that produced luminaries like Elvin Jones, Donald Byrd, Barry Harris, Tommy Flanagan, Curtis Fuller, Louis Hayes and Dorothy Ashby. His thirst for information and non secular perspective, nevertheless, was uniquely his personal. In 1948 he transformed to the Islamic Ahmadiyya Motion and altered his identify (from William Emmanuel Huddleston), whereas embracing an array of non-Western devices and infusing international harmonic scales and unique timbric textures into his work. One early on-the-nose album title, 1957’s Jazz For the Thinker, mirrored this studied method. However Lateef would come to reject “jazz,” believing it a demeaning descriptor from exterior the tradition. As a substitute he most well-liked one other certainly one of his neologisms, “autophysiopsychic music.” And if the time period by no means fairly caught on, his definition was indisputably simple to grasp: “This word means music from one’s physical, spiritual and mental self, i.e., music from the heart.”
It additionally effectively describes Psychicemotus, an album whose mental basis by no means compromises its emotive intimacy or crucially, its swing. Lateef heads up a quartet accomplished by bassist Reggie Workman, pianist Georges Arvanitas, and drummer James Black. On a fast-paced burner like “Semiocto” led by Lateef’s tenor, they’re positively classic-Coltrane-quartet-esque in ardour and precision. Whereas Lateef’s synthesis of influences informs all the things herein, James Black – New Orleans-born and imbued with the town’s second line rhythmic heritage – steps out because the unit’s kinetic engine. The title reduce, a elegant dialog in syncopation dominated by Workman’s elastic bass, Lateef’s flute and Black’s drums, is especially animated by the latter’s genius command of dynamics. The group’s interaction is equally compelling on extra reflective materials. “Bamboo Flute Blues” pays direct homage to NOLA funeral parades, Lateef taking part in bluesy lengthy tones on an F pentatonic scale flute of his personal design whereas Black faucets the snare along with his fingertips. It’s surpassed in mild magnificence right here solely by “First Gymnopedie,” a flute remedy of a late-1800s piece by influential French composer Erik Satie accented by tom-tom, cymbal, and rimshots that’s fondly harking back to Lateef’s beloved 1961 studying of “Love Theme From ‘Spartacus.’”
“Medula Sonata” – the observe that actually places the psychic in Psychicemotus – is the LP’s most formidable and unconventional piece. A sort of summary brainstem/anatomical rating with Indian bells as a distinguished texture, its improvised exchanges between Lateef’s tenor and the remainder of the gamers evokes the refined spontaneity of nerve indicators abuzz. In contrast, takes on Nice American Songbook requirements like “Why Do I Love You,” and “I’ll Always Be in Love With You” are merely beautiful reminders of the romantic heat of Lateef’s tenor.
Ever the unpinnable chief, Lateef concludes this system with one final curveball, shining a solo highlight on pianist Arvanitas for Fat Waller’s “Ain’t Misbehavin’.” Whether or not Lateef meant it as such or not, the French import/son of Greek dad and mom’s dexterous interpretation of the legendary Harlemite’s basic serves as a becoming coda – an affidavit to the music’s elementary humanity. “I’m very glad to be in America and to learn new things musically!” Arvanitas virtually glows in a quote from the album’s authentic liner notes. Beneath Yusef Lateef’s tutelage he couldn’t have loved a greater instructor.
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