Yusef Lateef - Removing the Mystery by Veryl Oakland

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Lateef's drawn-out, distinctive vibrato notes quietly reverberated throughout the room, casting a haunting, trance-like spell. I was mesmerized.

“Autophysiopsychic”

“He exhibited an air of naturalness unlike any artist I’d ever met.

- Veryl Oakland, photographer

This piece on multi-instrumentalist Yusef Lateef who passed away in December, 2013 at the age of 93 is from photographer/essayist Veryl Oakland’s exquisite work Jazz in Available Light: Illuminating the Jazz Greats from the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s.

You can find more background about the book as well as order information via this link to an earlier posting on Veryl’s book on these pages.

True to the northern California geographic area denoted in his last name, Veryl photographed Jazz musicians primarily at the Berkeley Jazz Festival, the Monterey Jazz Festival and at various clubs in the San Francisco area like Keystone Korner.

"Entranced" perhaps best describes my impressions of the man and his music the first time I saw him onstage leading a small quartet in the early 1970s.

There in the darkened club, shrouded in a lightweight, hooded cape, sat Yusef Lateef, surrounded by an assortment of obscure reed and exotic flute-like instruments: I knew this was not going to be any typical jazz engagement. The atmosphere at times during his set was almost hypnotic. On one number while playing oboe, Lateef's drawn-out, distinctive vibrato notes quietly reverberated throughout the room, casting a haunting, trance-like spell. I was mesmerized.

After that performance, I knew I needed to work with the man one-on-one the next time our paths crossed. I just had to. It was October of 1977, while headlining at Keystone Korner in San Francisco that I caught up with Lateef in person.

Talking with him backstage after his set, I suggested we do an afternoon photo session. He agreed to do the shoot later in the week, offering to meet me in the home where he was staying on Bay Street near Fisherman's Wharf.

In some ways, working with Yusef Lateef that day was unexpectedly surprising, but overall, perfect. Unlike the image he projected onstage, there was nothing mysterious about him. I found him to be very open, engaging, and down-to-earth. During our time together, he exhibited an air of naturalness unlike that of any other artist I'd met. It brought to mind the title of one of his albums, The Gentle Giant. We spent an hour or so talking about his current work and taking photographs in and around the home, 

Because he had grown up and worked with so many of jazz's greats

from the Detroit area whose passion was hard bop, I asked him about his embrace of Middle Eastern and Oriental musics, and what it was that he felt made him unique from all the others. 

He mentioned one word, "Autophysiopsychic," that at the time I had never heard of, and wasn't even able to spell correctly, to best describe his work. He told me, "You'll find out what I'm talking about later."

I discovered that after completing his Keystone Korner gig, Yusef re-

turned to New York and went directly into the recording studios with flugelhornist Art Farmer to co-produce, along with Creed Taylor, the CTI album entitled Autophysiopsychic. Lateef's surprising creations on that disc — representing more of a laid-back funk and soul sound — were a far cry from any of his previous explorations that I had heard.

Lateef has explained that the word comes from one's spiritual, physical, and emotional self. Looking back, I still don’t know that I can identify with “autophysiopsychic,” but I know that Yusef Lateef was easily one of the most “photogenic” artists I ever encountered.

YUSEF A. LATEEF (William Emanuel Huddleston)

Tenor saxophone, flute, oboe, basson, composer, educator; also woodwinds, pipe instruments of Arabic, Indian and Chinese origins.

Born: October 9, 1920

Died: December 23, 2013