release date: 17.06.2022 on Strut Records
…this intriguing encounter with multi-reed virtuoso Benny Maupin is one to the most fitting tributes that [Adam Rudolph] could pay Lateef, a timeless musical ‘universalist’.
★ ★ ★ ★ EDITORS CHOICE Jazzwise
Strut announce a memorable collaboration between two true jazz greats: Bennie Maupin and Adam Rudolph‘s ‘Symphonic Tone Poem For Brother Yusef’ is released June 17 on CD, LP and limited edition cassette.
Symphonic Tone Poem For Brother Yusef’ was originally commissioned by the Angel City Jazz festival in Claremont, to mark the late, great Yusef Lateef’s 100th birthday.
The album weaves a magical, meditative path across five movements, combining electronics, saxophone, voices and Rudolph’s wide palette of percussion from hand drums to thumb pianos and gongs. “I learned so much from Yusef about intervals,” explains Rudolph. “Greats like Yusef, Ornette Coleman and Coltrane stopped using traditional harmonic forms and introduced systems of working with intervals. So, there was an intellectual process with this album, but mostly it was just intuitive. What I love about intuition is that it erases its own tracks behind it. On the 5th Movement of this album, I was working around a major seventh but 90% of what happened was instinctive. It is a unique moment; you can’t go back and recreate it.”
Detroit’s Bennie Maupin is perhaps best known for his work with Miles Davis (including Bitches Brew), Herbie Hancock and The Headhunters and Eddie Henderson. Chicago percussionist Adam Rudolph was Yusef Lateef’s percussionist for 20 years and has worked with many other jazz luminaries including Pharoah Sanders, Wadada Leo Smith and Don Cherry. His work with Mandingo Griot Society during the ‘70s and ‘80s and, more recently, leading Hu Vibrational and Go Organic Orchestra constantly break new ground in the use and context of percussion.
“Brother Yusef was a luminous being who continues to be an inspiration to so many of us,” continues Rudolph. “He was a great teacher, not only of music, but also of how to live as an artist and as a human being.”
Bennie Maupin & Adam Rudolph – Symphonic Tone Poem For Brother Yusef
16 June 2022 On Strut Records
Strut Records – CD / LP /MC / DL
Track List: LP
A1 FIRST MOVEMENT
A2 SECOND MOVEMENT
A3 THIRD MOVEMENT (Part 1)
B1 THIRD MOVEMENT (Part 2)
B2 FOURTH MOVEMENT
B3 FIFTH MOVEMENT
Track List: CD
FIRST MOVEMENT
SECOND MOVEMENT
THIRD MOVEMENT
FOURTH MOVEMENT
FIFTH MOVEMENT
Track List: Cassette
FIRST MOVEMENT
SECOND MOVEMENT
THIRD MOVEMENT
FOURTH MOVEMENT
FIFTH MOVEMENT
Line up:
Bennie Maupin – saxophones
Adam Rudolph – drums & percussion
The album is mastered by Technology Works and cover art is by Nancy Jackson, based on a Lateef saying, “Have you noticed the leaves waving to you? It’s okay to wave back.”
Bennie Maupin and Adam Rudolph‘s ‘Symphonic Tone Poem For Brother Yusef can be purchased HERE!