The Breadth Of Yusef Lateef’s Unique Genius Is Revealed Anew On Elemental Music’s Record Store Day Black Friday Release Golden Flower: Live In Sweden

Previously Unreleased Studio and Live Recordings by the Saxophonist-Flautist for Swedish Radio Due as Limited Two-LP Set on Nov. 28, with CD Edition Arriving Dec. 5

Package Includes Detailed Notes by Music Journalist Herb Boyd, Former Student and Sideman Charlie Apicella, and Saxophonists Chico Freeman and Jeff Coffin

Elemental Music will proudly present Golden Flower: Live in Sweden, a set of previously unreleased studio and live dates by multi-instrumentalist, composer, and educator Yusef Lateef, as an exclusive two-LP set for Record Store Day Black Friday on Nov. 28.

Produced for release by Zev Feldman, “the Jazz Detective,” and issued with the cooperation of the musician’s widow Ayesha Lateef, the package will include a 1967 studio date recorded by Sveriges Radio, Sweden’s national publicly funded radio broadcaster, in Mosebacke, Stockholm,

Sweden, and a 1972 concert performance at the Åhus Jazz Festival in Åhus, Sweden.

On both occasions, the saxophonist-flautist was supported by percussion legend Albert “Tootie” Heath; the 1967 quartet included pianist Lars Sjösten and bassist Palle Danielsson, while pianist Kenny Barron and bassist Bob Cunningham rounded out the 1972 quartet. Collectively the repertoire runs the gamut from Lateef’s lyrical originals for flute to hard-swinging saxophone outings on blues and (in a cover of Nat King Cole’s early hit “Straighten Up and Fly Right”) even R&B.

Golden Flower will feature detailed notes by music journalist Herb Boyd, who collaborated on Lateef’s 2006 autobiography The Gentle Giant; a remembrance from Lateef’s longtime sideman, guitarist-drummer-educator Charlie Apicella; and appreciations by saxophonist-educator Jeff Coffin (noted for his work with the Dave Matthews Band) and Chico Freeman.

The set has been sonically restored by Marc Doutrepont of EQuus, mastered by Matthew Lutthans at the Mastering Lab, and pressed on 180-gram vinyl. It will also be released in a two-CD edition on Dec. 5

Feldman says, “It’s a big thrill for me to once again present a new archival release for the very first time from the great multi-instrumentalist, Yusef Lateef. At Elemental Music, we took great pride in presenting Atlantis Lullaby: The Concert in Avignon in 2024, and now Golden Flower: Live in Sweden….Yusef Lateef is someone who continues to inspire so many through his music and his teachings, which live on thanks to the great many who celebrate him and keep his legacy burning bright.”

In his overview of the newly unearthed recordings, Boyd writes, “By 1967 and 1972, when the music contained on this set was recorded, Yusef Lateef (1920-2013) had fully developed a musical concept he defined as ‘autophysiopsychic.’ He described it as music from one’s physical, mental and spiritual self. While it may be difficult to discern how the music is tonally and sonically different from what others might call ‘jazz,’ he felt calling the music jazz burdened it with too many negative connotations, particularly when it was associated with such synonyms as hokum, nonsense, blather, as well as a host of demeaning sexual references. The renewal of Black nationalism during this historical phase cannot be overlooked as an influence on Lateef's thinking and ideology.”

Apicella — who appeared on Lateef’s recordings for his own YAL label from the mid-’90s until the musician’s death — recalls, “Dr. Lateef had the ability to elevate the skills and potential of anyone around him. When I encountered him as a student, I was an absolute beginner in music, only having studied guitar for a short time. But he was a curious man and a deeply empathetic and generous soul. He saw in me, as he seemed to see in all his student collaborators, the potential for a great personal awakening through the practice and lifestyle of a musician.  And more so, the lifestyle of an enlightened, creative person.”

Freeman observes, “Yusef influenced me at first, less in my actual saxophone playing and more in his study, research and reaching out to other musical world styles. He was the first jazz musician to fully do that. Of course, a few others explored very specific things. Coltrane got into the Indian thing. I played with McCoy Tyner for five years and he introduced me to the Japanese koto. But Yusef went further, he was more immersed in those cultures, tried to understand their different scales, and even wrote a book about them. Before that, I would hear him playing lots of blues with Cannonball, and he also influenced me in that period, because the man could play the blues!”

Coffin — who now teaches at Vanderbilt University, where the Lateef archives reside — says,“I don’t really know how to describe Yusef’s playing, because he was such a wide musician, pulling from so many musical cultures. He was an improviser, not specifically a jazz musician. I don’t even know what the word ‘jazz’ means anymore. It’s a wide umbrella. Yusef played Black American Music, certainly. So he was a Black American musician pulling from other cultures around the world. He had a deep respect and admiration for other cultures and he explored the musical sounds from those cultures. He educated himself by traveling. This constant travelling influenced his playing, his writing and his education, and the way he taught and listened. So I'm not sure how I'd describe his playing. It's like trying to describe the wind.”

For more information please contact:

Matt Hanks / Shore Fire Media

Ph: 718.522.7171 ext. 42 / mhanks@shorefire.com