Detroit-frequenter and Grammy-award-winning jazz musician and composer Yusef Lateef (born William Emanuel Huddleston) died Monday at his home in Massachusetts at the age of 93.
The Chattanooga-born Lateef ventured to Detroit in 1925 when his family relocated from Lorain, Ohio. As a young musician, Lateef befriended countless Detroit jazz icons before graduating high school, including: Milt Jackson, Donald Byrd, bassist Paul Chambers, Tommy Flanagan, Barry Harris, Thad, Hank and Elvin Jones and guitarist Kenny Burrell. At 18-years-old, the accomplished tenor saxophonist had already started his professional career.
Although known for his saxophone, Lateef also played the oboe and bassoon, as well as non-western-influenced instruments such as, the bamboo flute, shanai, shofar, xun, arghul and koto. After returning from an orchestral tour with Dizzy Gilliespie, Lateef studied composition and the flute at Wayne State University.
Soon after his return to Detroit, during the 1950s, Lateef converted to Islam as part of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. It was during this time that Lateef became a leader at Savoy Records, and collaborated with artists such as: Wilbur Harden (trumpet, flugelhorn), drummer Frank Gant, bassist Herman Wright and pianist Hugh Lawson.
In 1961, Lateef released Eastern Sounds and Into Something, both of which helped to establish his signature use of non-western instruments. This specific sound is noted as being a major influence on saxophonist John Coltrane, who became Lateef’s Impulse Records label-mate from 1963-1966.
Now revered as a music educator, Lateef began teaching courses in autophysiopsychic music at the Manhattan School of Music in 1971, and became an associate professor at the Borough of Manhattan Community College in 1972. In 1982, he received jazz’s highest honor: a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters.
In the 1980s, Lateef experimented with new-age and spiritual musical elements. His recorded work, Yusef Lateef’s Little Symphony, earned him a Grammy Award for Best New Age Album in 1987. Five years later, Lateef founded YAL Records, for which he recorded until his death.
Within his musical career, Lateef recorded more than 35 full-length studio albums, on more than 15 different labels and collaborating with more than 30 jazz artists of his era. He is survived by his son Yusef Lateef, granddaughter Iqbal and his great-grandchildren.
Yusef Lateef’s autobiography The Gentle Giant (written with Herb Boyd) is available on Amazon.