Yusef Lateef – Love Theme From Spartacus

Our last post focussed on the cool ‘La Nevada’ by The Gil Evans Orchestra. The focus of today’s post will be on Yusef Lateef’s ‘Love Theme From Spartacus’ which like ‘La Nevada’, was also released in 1961.

‘Love Theme From Spartacus’ is from Lateef’s famous album Eastern Sounds, released in 1961 on Moodsville, a subsidiary label of Prestige records which was created to showcase ‘mood’ music or easy listening music which was particularly popular in the late 50s. However, whilst Lateef’s Eastern Sounds has a definite mood and is easy to listen to, it would be a disservice to label it as merely ‘easy listening’. It is instead a beautiful modal gem, one that would probably be one of my desert island discs. Consisting of originals and film theme covers, it is a perfect album from start to finish, moving through many colours, textures and styles.

Yusef Lateef was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, author and educator. Best known as a tenor sax and flute player, he also played oboe and bassoon, two instruments unusual in jazz, and a wide variety of non-western instruments. He was a pioneer in this respect and throughout his long and varied career often looked east for musical inspiration. This began with Lateef exploring Middle Eastern music on his earlier album Prayer to the East (1957) and then further with Eastern Sounds.

On Eastern Sounds, we see Lateef on tenor sax, bamboo flute, oboe and xun, backed by Barry Harris on piano, Ernie Farrow on bass and percussion and Lex Humphries on drums. What’s interesting is the use of non-western instruments such as the xun, also known as a Chinese globular flute, an ancient Chinese instrument which resembles a sort of egg-shaped ocarina, and the rabaab, a lute-like instrument from Central Afghanistan; to see both these instruments feature on a jazz album was incredibly unusual for the time. With tracks names such as ‘The Plum Blossom’, ‘Blues For The Orient’, ‘Ching Miau’ and ‘The Purple Flower’, the influence of both nature and Eastern traditions is clear.

In an interview with jazz critic Marc Myers back in 2008, Lateef reflected on how his childhood was defined by a ‘passion for nature’ and how growing up in Detroit as an only child made him more sensitive to his surroundings. In the early 50s, Lateef converted to Islam and this no doubt played a role in guiding him eastwards both spiritually and musically. Nature and spirituality are two qualities I associate heavily with Lateef’s music and the use of natural flutes and other non-Western instruments contributes to this reflective, organic atmosphere that permeates much of his work.

‘Love Theme From Spartacus’ is a cover of the theme from Stanley Kubrick’s film Spartacus (1960), composed by Alex North. The original is a beautiful orchestral theme which carries real emotive weight. Lateef’s version is far more intimate but still retains the beauty and soul of the original. The track gently sways and has a calming and meditative quality to it. It is probably this that led Nujabes, a famous Japanese hip hop producer, to sample Lateef for his track ‘The Final View’. Nujabes also used ‘Love Theme From “The Robe”‘ from Eastern Sounds for his track ‘Feather’.

In short, Lateef’s ‘Love Theme From Spartacus’ is a beautiful modal track which I’ll never get tired of listening to. Eastern Sounds is an album that you can put on morning, day or night, and it will always deliver.

I leave you with a fantastic live performance of Yusef Lateef performing alongside jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal, another favourite musician of mine whose work I’ll no doubt touch upon in the coming weeks!

To hear more from Lateef, head over to our ‘Eats, Flutes And Reeds’ playlist on Spotify and while you’re there, check out our ‘Facing East’ playlist for more Eastern-tinged jazz.

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