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1960 · Album

The Centaur and the Phoenix

↑ Yusef Lateef

Recorded 1960 · Riverside
The Centaur and the Phoenix

A Mature Artist Speaking in Full Voice

What makes this album outstanding is that the playing and writing are equally strong.

The Centaur and the Phoenix finds Yusef Lateef operating at full command — composing and performing with the kind of balance that doesn't come early in a career. DownBeat reviewer Don DeMicheal caught this immediately, noting that most albums tip toward either strong musicianship or strong writing, but rarely both. Here both are present.

Lateef brings his full instrumental arsenal to these sessions, moving between tenor saxophone, flute, oboe, and various ethnic instruments with the ease of someone who has spent years investigating what each voice can say. The album isn't a showcase for technique alone; each instrument choice serves the composition. The writing itself avoids obvious moves — there's real thought in how these pieces unfold, and the musicians respond with playing that matches that intention.

This is Lateef at a turning point, past the early experiments but not yet into the spiritual investigations that would dominate his later work. It's straight enough to be immediately engaging but curious enough to reward returning to it. If you know Lateef only from his most famous recordings, this one sits in that sweet middle ground where he's fully himself but still engaged with the working jazz language of his time.

Who's playing
Listen next
By Yusef Lateef
Eastern Sounds 1961
More Hard Bop
Cornbread 1965
Lee Morgan
Recording Info
Track listing
1Revelation5:53
2Apathy5:20
3Ev’ry Day (I Fall in Love)6:55
4The Centaur and the Phoenix5:33
5Iqbal4:48
6Summer Song5:22
7The Philanthropist3:56
Musicians
Further Reading
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Where next?

More by Yusef Lateef
Eastern Sounds 1961
Yusef Lateef’s Detroit Latitude 42° 30′ Longitude 83° 1969
The Three Faces of Yusef Lateef 1960
The Blue Yusef Lateef 1968
All 35 albums →
More Hard Bop
Cornbread 1965
Lee Morgan
Open Sesame (The Rudy Van Gelder Edition) 1960
Freddie Hubbard
Byrd in Flight 1960
Donald Byrd
Speak No Evil 1965
Wayne Shorter
All 147 Hard Bop artists →

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