Yusef Lateef

Yusef Lateef is a multi-instrumentalist and composer whose pioneering incorporation of world music elements into jazz made him a crucial figure in expanding the genre’s global vocabulary. His career demonstrates remarkable breadth: from his early Hard Bop recordings in Detroit during the 1950s to his groundbreaking work on Prestige, Riverside, and Impulse! Records that introduced instruments like the oboe, various flutes, and Eastern instruments such as the shanai and arghul into jazz contexts. His albums like “Eastern Sounds” (1961) and “The Centaur and the Phoenix” predated the world music movement by decades, blending modal jazz with Middle Eastern, Asian, and African musical concepts. Beyond his instrumental innovations, he was also a composer, educator, and author who coined the term “autophysiopsychic music” to describe his holistic approach. His work throughout the 1960s and 70s on Atlantic and CTI further developed his synthesis of jazz improvisation with global musical traditions, and his academic career at institutions like the University of Massachusetts helped institutionalize the study of non-Western music in jazz education.