Gone too long from this record, and in the meantime have spelunked many discoveries. Number one of which: Yusef Lateef and his early experiments in melding Eastern sounds with jazz.



Blues for the Orient is an indicative track. The drums start out quiet, with a snaking rhythm with tambourine. The piano thrums in, with an aggressive drone. Then Lateef comes in, playing an oboe with mysterious long notes. A quiet tension holds the piece together, until it bursts into a swinging jazz rhythm, only to return to the East 12 bars later.

One of my favorite pieces of music has a similar sound: Duke Ellington's version of Tchiakovsky's Arabesque, which he calls Arabesque Cookie.



Spike Lee used it for a scene in Malcolm X where he enters a mosque in Africa and decides to convert to the Muslim faith. Lateef was also a Muslim convert, and I think you can hear his spirituality in his music. He's a professor of music, and he teaches his own theory of music which he calls Autophysiopsychic Music. He xplains it as music which comes from one's physical, mental, and spiritual self.

I can dig it.