Point to counterpoint

Ear to the east

Every year the diversity of the Atlanta Jazz Festival’s programming seems to grow, reflecting what is increasingly becoming a city of great ethnic variety. Throughout its history, festival organizers have brought in an array of performers from across the jazz spectrum: bop, contemporary, improvised and “world.”

Rarely, though, has one festival artist so successfully incorporated all of those subgenres into one unique sound as has Yusef Lateef. Now in his eighth decade, Lateef has spent the majority of his life as an innovator of jazz and spiritual music, and he has no signs of slowing down.

Born William Emanuel Huddleston, Yusef Lateef grew up in a nurturing jazz environment in 1930s Detroit. By 1950, Lateef was already accomplished on tenor saxophone and was studying composition and flute at Wayne State University. While in college, he became so intrigued with Eastern culture that he converted to Islam.

Much of Lateef’s fascination with Eastern culture can be heard in his music, starting as early as 1957. On Jazz Moods and Other Sounds, both recorded in ‘57, there are distinct Arabic tones and Eastern harmonics in Lateef’s tenor playing. Additionally, his use of the argol (an Egyptian double reed wind instrument) and the shenai (an Indian double reed instrument used by snake charmers) is groundbreaking. Few at the time had used such exotic instruments in jazz, let alone successfully incorporated them into fairly straight-ahead compositions (though many of Lateef’s compositions are anything but straight-ahead 4/4 chordal improvisations).

Strong as Lateef’s interest is in exotic instruments, however, he will always be known for his work on his primary instruments of choice: the tenor sax and the flute. Lateef’s tenor on ballads like “Ameena” (from Stable Mates) and “Don’t Blame Me” (from Eastern Sounds) rival Lester Young and Dexter Gordon for sheer lyrical beauty. The tone of Lateef’s flute will convert even those with condemnations of that instrument’s oft-reedy trill.

While he has spent much of his career incorporating world music into jazz, Lateef has more recently been interested in the opposite: playing world music with traces of jazz. Since 1988, Lateef has been involved in an ongoing partnership with Adam Rudolph, a percussionist who specializes in much of the exotic Eastern and African percussion that interests Lateef: talking drums, udu drums, tabla, bells, dumbek. It’s out there you can feel they’re way in to.

music@creativeloafing.com

?Point man for the new garde?

Jazz festivals typically drip with nostalgia. The wistful aura is overwhelming as organizers cater to the memories of the music’s older (and not getting much younger) audience. But, as Alonzo Craig, the performing arts program director for the Atlanta Jazz Festival, says, this year’s event “is designed to appeal to all generations: young, old and in-between.” The festival will attempt to accomplish this goal by presenting a diverse, innovative and relatively young lineup.

Although the festival is not beneath bringing in a few jazz “legends” for name recognition (the Heath Brothers, Ahmad Jamal and Yusef Lateef), the month-long festival notably concludes with several fresh, genre-bending artists such as violinist Regina Carter and trumpeters Russell Gunn and Roy Hargrove.

Among the new guard, Hargrove, a Texas native, stands out as a must-see. He exploded onto the jazz scene after being “discovered” by Wynton Marsalis during a jazz clinic that Marsalis conducted at Hargrove’s Dallas-area high school. While this encounter had the potential of impeding Hargrove’s development — given Marsalis’ rigid notion of post-bop experimentations with fusion and the avant-garde as derivations from jazz tradition rather than as innovations — he has thankfully proved remarkably versatile and eager to push his music in new directions.

Rather than just presenting rehashed and tired versions of bop and hard-bop standards, the 34-year-old Hargrove found an appropriate balance between paying homage to his jazz influences and developing an elastic, morphing sound that takes into account modern and urban. He first distinguished himself from the pack in 1996 through a collaboration with pianist Chucho Valdes. He pocketed a Grammy for the resulting energetic Afro-Cuban album, Habana.

Hard Groove, Hargrove’s latest creation (dubbed “neo-soul”), is his best yet, and hopefully, represents his future direction. Combining jazz, hip-hop, soul and funk, Hard Groove captures an element missing in most other fusion projects: It doesn’t try too hard. Hard Groove just feels right. Rather than pit virtuosic trumpeting against a set of produced beats, Hargrove’s trumpet musing blends perfectly into a mix of B-3 organ, bass, guitar, saxophones and the occasional vocal or rap.

One track, a take on Funkadelic’s “I’ll Stay,” features neo-soul heartthrob D’Angelo, whose rich crooning is matched only by superb solos from Hargrove and guitarist Chalmers Alford. Off of Hargrove’s composition “Poetry,” the album forges new ground by actually making jazz and rap come together without disastrously falling apart. Here, Q-Tip’s fluid rhymes complement Erykah Badu’s sultry vocals. Behind those two guests, Hargrove and the rest of the band settle into a laid-back rhythmic groove without overshadowing the vocals.

But Hargrove isn’t beyond giving a nod to one of his heroes. On “The Stroke,” he evokes the classic Benny Golson tune, “I Remember Clifford,” a tribute to the influential bop trumpeter Clifford Brown.

It is too early to call Hargrove a pioneer. But given his current trajectory, he is sure to push the boundaries of jazz by incorporating other non-jazz influences into his future projects and performance.

music@creativeloafing.com