WKCR is very excited to announce a three-part birthday celebration for virtuoso Yusef Lateef. We will dedicate all three of our jazz shows (5-8:20 AM, 12-3 PM, 6-9 PM) to Yusef’s music. He was born William Emanuel Huddleton in Tennessee, but moved to Detroit at five years old. There, he discovered the sounds of jazz from the likes of Milt Jackson, Paul Chambers, Elvin Jones, and Kenny Burrell. He bought an alto saxophone for $80 when he was eighteen and started to play. In 1949, he toured with the Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra; around the same time, he converted to Islam and took the name Yusef Lateef. He picked up the flute around a year later. Lateef began recording as a leader in 1957, but truly found his sound in the early 1960s. He incorporated nonstandard and non-Western jazz instruments into the music––including (but not limited to) oboe, bassoon, bamboo flute, shofar, argol, sarewa, and koto. In 2013, Peter Keepnes wrote in his New York Times obituary that Yusef “played world music before world music had a name.” In 1988, He won the Grammy Award for Best New Age Album for Yusef Lateef’s Little Symphony, on which wrote all four movements, played all fourteen instruments, and served as producer. He disliked the term “jazz” and did not call himself a “jazz musician.” Instead, he referred to his music as “autophysiopsychic”: it came from his physical (physio-), mental (-psychic), and spiritual self (auto-). He was named an NEA Jazz Master in 2010. In his later career, he toured with jazz greats like Kenny Barron and Tootie Heath, published books, worked as an educator, and mentored and collaborated with Adam Randolph.

Lateef passed away on Dec 23, 2013. His instruments were auctioned in the hopes that they would still be played. And here at WKCR, his music lives on in another way––on our airwaves. Listeners can tune in to our 3-part Yusef Lateef birthday broadcast on 89.9FM or stream the birthday broadcast live on our website, wkcr.org. Follow WKCR on Instagram (@wkcr) and Twitter (@WKCRFM) for updates about this special broadcast and future events. As always, online listening is available 24/7 at wkcr.org via our web stream.