Yusef Lateef - "The African-American Epic Suite" for quintet & orchestra (1993)

A very different Yusef Lateef piece from the last post - a dark conceptual work for quintet and orchestra from 1993. We'll get the composer to explain :

Yusef Lateef said :

1st movement excerpt

1st Movement :
The African as Non American

As this movement opens you are taken back in time, about three hundred years, to the continent of West Africa. You imagine that you are listening to the music of Yoruba, Hausa, Akan, Ewe, Senufa, Benin, Dahomey, Ebo or Ashanti people, etcetera. In other words, you are listening to a music which has its historical roots in the soil of Africa.

In the 20th measure the violins enter on the note of D flat, one octave above high C. Programmatically the violins represent the first slave ships, stealthily approaching the shore of West Africa. The high D flat continues, gradually increasing in volume and intensity. by teh 58th measure the D flat has reached an alarming medium forte. In the 59th measure the slavers land and commence to capture the Africans. At this instant the calmness, serenity and calculated capriciousness of the African music is disturbed.

Now, fright, flight, cacaphony and mayhem can be heard in the music. The rest of the movement reflects the futile efforts of the Africans desperately tying to avoid the chains and shackles of the relentless slavers, ending with the bassoon sounding the nine note motif that signals the unknown future of the captives.


2nd movement excerpt

2nd Movement:
The Middle Passage and Transmutation

This movement opens with a dirge like passage which denotes the captives being stabilised in the bowels of the slave ship, with chains and unyielding leg irons. Sounds of pain are heard at intervals throughout the movement. Physical suffering and thoughts of sadness burdened with bewilderment rack the bodies and tax the minds of the captives during the middle passage, as well, tender thoughts and supplications of prayer for their families left behind pour forth from their tongues and hearts between the frequent moments of anguish and excruciating pain endured during the middle passage.

The motif, in a different context, sounds again near the end of this movement, which are followed by African exclamations, that are neither happy nor sad, at the sight of land - America - the new world, from which comes a new kind of human being (a trans-mutation), the African American.


3rd movement excerpt

3rd Movement
Love For All

Since the Great Awakening of the early nineteenth century it was realized by most of the known world that the African American reflected spirituality, love and a deep sense of compassion in his/her music; therefore, the 3rd movement reflects as deeply as the composer. Conductor and musicians are able to emit through musical sounds : compassion and love for all mankind.


4th movement excerpt

4th Movement
Freedom

The opening nine chords of the 4th movement, accompanied by the side-blown Chinese flute heralds the freedom of the African American academic and artistic expression, which actually began in earnest after the abolition of slavery, and has continued to blossom consistently even to this day, by the grace of God. This movement in essence, reflects this evolution beginning in the early sixties through 1993.
All praise is to god.

Simon adds :

I came across a reference to an essay by David Pope, an ex-student of Lateef, called "Diverse Compositional Techniques in Yusef Lateef's African American Epic Suite "First Movement - The African as Non-American" , from a journal called ex tempore, A Journal of Compositional and Theoretical Research in Music (Vol. IX/2: Spring/Summer 1999). I didn't have any luck getting in without the correct academic passwords, but I did manage to extract the images, three pages from Lateef's score for the first movement :



TRACKLIST

01 1st Movement : The African as Non-American - 6:16
02 2nd Movement : Transmutation - 12:40
03 3rd movement : Love For All - 11:46
04 4th Movement : Freedom - 15:22

Total Playing time 46:08

MUSICIANS

Yusef Lateef - Tenor Saxaphone, Germanic Flute, Alto Flute, Indian Flute, Bamboo Flutes, Indian temple flute, moan flute, Algaita, Shannie

Cologne Radio Orchestra (Kölner Rundfunkorchester) - Group

David de Villiers - Director (orchestra)
Eternal Wind - Performers :

Ralph Jones - Tenor and Soprano saxaphones, Flute, Bass Clarinet, Hichiriki, Bamboo Flutes

Charles Moore - Dumbek, Flugelhorn, Shofar, Conch Shells

Frederico Ramos - Acoustic and Elecric Guitars, Gimbri

Adam Rudolph - small percussion, cymbals, drums, bells, gong, tabla, didjiridoo, whistles, udu clay drums, hand drums, kalgu, kalngu (talking drum)

PRODUCTION
Recorded October 25 - November 3, 1993 at WDR Cologne.Ulrich Kurth - Producer, Liner NotesHelmut Büttner - Sound SupervisionHermann Kaldenhoff - Recording engineerGreg Calby - Digital Mastering, Sterling Sound New York.
Irene Van Dreyke - Sound TechnicianGreg Calby - Digital Mastering, Sterling Sound New York.Timo Kirves - Photography
MohrDesign, Köln - artwork
Ein Aufnahme des West-deutschen Rundfunks Köln


YUSEF LATEEF blog discography

Disclaimer :  These links were all live in 2009, when this blog post was written. That's a long time ago.

'Morning - The Savoy Sessions' at Hook's Gems

"The Last Savoy Sessions" (2000) at Lost Soul or Avaxhome
(includes : 'Prayer to the East" (1957); 'Jazz and the Sounds of Nature (1957); 'The Dreamer" (1959); 'The Fabric of jazz" (1959).
1955 'Yusef Lateef with Donald Byrd' at Musica Desde Las Antipodas
1957 'Before Dawn' at Jazzdisposition or AxaxHome
1957 'Jazz Mood" at AvaxHome
1957 "Jazz For the Thinker" at Musica Desde Las Antipodas
1957 "Prayer to the East" at Musica Desde Las Antipodas
1957 "Plays for Lovers' at Daytime Lovers
1957 'The Sounds of Yusef" at Taringa or Jazzagogo
1957 "Other Sounds" at KingCake Crypt / alternate
1958 'Lateef at Cranbrook' at Orgy in Rhythm
1959 "Cry! Tender' (FLAC) at CIA1959 "Cry! Tender" (MP3) at Lakasafunk / alternate 
1959 "The Dreamer" at Musica Desde Las Antipodas
1959 'Beautiful Flowers" at Jazzdisposition
1960 'Three Faces of Yusef Lateef' (MP3) at Jazz En la Web or AvaxHome
1960 'The Three Faces Of Yusef Lateef' (FLAC) at CIA

1960 "The Centaur and the Phoenix" @ Avax1960 'Lost in Sound' aka 'Outside Blues' @ Hook's Gems

1961 'Into Something' (MP3) / alternate / alternate

1961 "Eastern Sounds (FLAC) at CIA
1961 "Eastern Sounds" (MP3) at Somewhere I have Never travelled
1961 "with Mingus at Birdland" (radio broadcast) at Inconstant Sol
1963 "Jazz 'Round The World" donated by Trevor / alternate / alternate

1964 'Club Date' at Orgy in Rhythm
1964 'Psychicemotus' at seventeen green buicks / alternate
1964 'Live at Peps' Vol 1 at Marramua or Avaxhome or Kingcake Krypt
1964 'Live at Pep's Vol. 2" at Radiodada or Avaxhome or Kingcake Krypt
1965 'The Golden Flute' (MP3) at Orgy in Rhythm / alternate
1965 'The Golden Flute' (FLAC) at CIA1965 '1984' donated by Trevor
1966 'A flat, G flat and C' at Daytime Lovers / alternate
1968 'The Blue Yusef Lateef' at Voodoo Child / alternate
1969 'Yusef Lateef's Detroit' at Marramua / alternate
1969 "The Diverse Yusef Lateef" at M13.com.ua / alternate
1972 "The Gentle Giant" donated by Corvimax / alternate
1973 'Hush n' Thunder' at My Favourite Sound / alternate
1974 "Part of the Search" at Musica Desde Las Antipodas / alternate
1975 'Ten Years Hence' at Orgy in Rhythm
1976 'The Doctor Is In .. and Out" at My Favourite Sound / alternate
1978 'Autophysiopsychic' at All For the CTI
1979 'In a Temple Garden' at My Jazz World / alternate
1993 "The African-American Suite" - link at the base of this post
1995 "The World at Peace" (Adam Rudolph and Yusef Lateef)
2005 "Influence" - Belmondo/Lateef donated by Corvimax / alternate
2006 - Festival Jazz de Cully, March 26, Chapiteau, Cully (CH) - at Jazz Bootlegs
2007 "Live In New York" donated by Corvimax (thanks!)

POST CREDITS

CD rip by Simon666

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