Beyond the Sky


Yusef Lateef &
Adam Rudolph


YAL / META 005 - 2000

A tribute to Yusef Lateef | other Meta CD's | concert bookings | Meta Records homepage


IN CELEBRATION OF YUSEF LATEEF'S 80TH BIRTHDAY YEAR META/YAL ARE PROUD TO ANNOUNCE THE RELEASE OF THE LATEST COLLABORATION BETWEEN GRAMMY AWARD WINNER/SAXOPHONE LEGEND YUSEF LATEEF AND ACCLAIMED PERCUSSIONIST & COMPOSER ADAM RUDOLPH

Beyond the Sky features 10 new compositions by Rudolph and Lateef, 3 of which were co-composed. The music, written for eight musicians, was premiered at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully hall in honor of Yusef Lateef's sixty years of performing. This new CD was recorded the following day.

"When serious artist/composers of Autophysiopsychic music, like Adam Rudolph and Yusef Lateef, come together to innovate and synthesize elements of sound in creative practice, the result is sure to be: 1. musically authentic, 2. aesthetically innovative, and 3. spiritually satisfying to any audience."

The multi reed master and percussion innovator have fixed their focus on freedom through discipline and unity in diversity.

 

 


all photography: woodyfordphoto.com



Beyond the Sky
 

Yusef Lateef: Tenor saxophone, Alto and C flutes, Nepali Flute, China, Deeraphone, Moan Flute, Selya Flute

Adam Rudolph: Handrumset (Djembe, Congas), Udu Drum, Kalangu, Midi Drums, East African Harp, Percussion

Joseph Bowie: Trombone, Sabar, Congas, Conch Shells, Percussion

Mark Helais: Double Bass

Ralph Jones: Alto & C Flutes, Bass Clarinet, Tenor & Soprano Saxophones, Bassoon, Hichiriki, Nepali Flute

Alex Marcelo: Piano, Djun-Djun

Charles Moore: Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Conch Shells, Batajon, Karinya

M. Abidh Waugh: Electro-Acoustic Computer Processing, Electric Guitar

 

 



 

Beyond the Sky | Origin of a Mother Tongue
Evanescent Symmetries | A Handful of Gifts
Within Yourself | Three Dreams
Iqbal Remembered | Sun Cup
Hunger and Tears | Beyond the Sky, Part 2

Recorded February 26, 2000 at Water Music Studio, New Jersey









Descriptive Notes on the Music
by Herb Boyd

Among all the things the composed and performed music of Yusef Lateef and Adam Rudolph inspire are the limitless vistas of freedom for the listener and for those writers foolhardy enough to interpret it.

Aptly titled "Beyond the Sky," the music is an expansive suite of panoramic scenes, a visual odyssey allowing each individual to apply his or her own scenario. The diverse, picturesque tonal images here are as global and grandeur as they are familiar to one who has been fortunate enough to be transfixed in a circle of puzzled ochre-laden Sambura in Tanzania; awed by the tiny Lacandon people who dwell in the Zacateca Mountains of Guatemala; caught in the swirl of urban wizards of Bahia and their mesmeric birembaus; charmed by mystical gypsies on the outskirts of Detroit passing through each summer with their guitars and violins; and beguiled by Mississippi delta bluesmen and women taking their cues from some ancient text older than the eyes of Ogotemmeli the Dogon seer.

"Beyond the Sky" opens like a first dawn as the Grimaldi on some distant African plain might have seen it. Lateef is Orpheus/Horus beckoning the sun with his golden flute of powerful tranquility, inviting the 21 rays of Amen-Ra to bless his band with an eternal wind of wonder. A primordial, unbroken drone stretches under Rudolph's earthen heartbeat that anticipates a village coming to life full of song. Then there are phonemic utterances stimulated by the drum, and the words of antiquity are infused with the blues.

It could be a Twa village gathering itself in some untrammeled Ituri rainforest, amazed to be encountering another day of festivities. The balance of rituals is tuned to the symmetry of nature, and for each sound there is new meaning to beauty and harmony. Charles Moore's offering is the essence of language, phrases formed with an intuitive feel for basic communication somehow alloyed to the tongue, words shaped by embouchure that are given a wider significance when forged in an ensemble context of bass wind and strings.

Early morning somber is replaced by a rhythmic choir of drums, and the muezzin with shenai calls spirit forces to worship. Communal ceremonies are punctuated by an exchange of griot chants between Lateef and Ralph Jones, whose soprano sax sets the Twa-light tones for piano and bass duet as evening settles into the night's enveloping density. Then all is suffused with Lateef's poignant flute, a solitary Banda meditating on the impenetrable mystery of darkness, the "dreamtime" of the Twa.

Around the village fire Joseph Bowie comes with a story about the adventure that lurks behind the next bend in the Zambesi River; he speaks of conquest and a fearless need to face the two thousand seasons. Lateef tenderly recalls a princess of life and love, how she gracefully moved among the men of the mbanjo and invoking cries of "jamil," the beautiful one. The night fires flickered and the men set aside their instruments to listen to a grander music from deep in the bush.

An opaque moon dances above, an occasional ray falling where the men lay with their dreams illuminated, waiting for tomorrow's sun. Comes the moment of renewal and the refreshed ensemble is a collection of testimony from dreamtime. Each has a distinct narrative to report, each a tale to relate-and Rudolph's drum binds the separate soliloquies, unifying the voices and they speak as one. There is no hunger and no tears.

A new day dawns and the rhythm of the people resume a cycle toward discovery and mastery of time. To see where you have been you replay the music, but now the scene has changed, and you futilely search the path from the bow of the Mbuti that morphs to the coordinated resonance of voice and a mellow Dravidian pakhawaj.

It is the universality of "Beyond the Sky" that enraptures, a world music capable of evoking a variety of feelings in ever changing venues. The journey is reminiscent of the late poet's lyrics about another wondrous moment-"where echoes shine and reflections ring." Lateef and Rudolph have added yet another dimension in their quest to capture the essence of our life and harmony on this side of the sky.

 




 

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