World famous jazz musician Yusef
Lateef has passed away this past Monday (December 23, 2013), at his home in
Massachusetts, at the age of 93.
Lateef (born William Emanuel
Huddleston) was an impressive tenor saxophonist, flutist, oboist, and
bassoonist. He earned a master’s in music education from the Manhattan School
of Music and was a professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where
he earned a doctorate in education. He took the name Yusef Lateef after
converting to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and making the pilgrimage to
Mecca.
Mr. Lateef played bebop with Dizzy
Gillespie in 1949.
His compositions have been played
by symphony orchestras in the U.S. and in Germany. He won a Grammy in 1987 for
“Yusef Lateef’s Little Symphony,” on which he played every instrument.
In 2010, Yusef was named a
National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, the U.S.’s highest jazz honor.
Listen to the incomparable Yusef
Lateef, may he rest in peace!
Yusef Lateef [1920 – 2013]
© 12/30/2013
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