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Home , Autophysiopsychic, Chief Bey, Curtis Fuller, Dakota Staton, Doug Watkins, Eastern Sounds

’s Quest

Ingrid Monson

Abstract: Yusef Lateef’s neologism for was autophysiopsychic, meaning “music from one’s phys- ical, mental and spiritual self.” Lateef condensed in this term a very considered conception linking the intellectual and the spiritual based in his faith as an Ahmadiyya Muslim and his lifelong commitment Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/148/2/104/1831417/daed_a_01746.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 to both Western and non-Western intellectual explorations. Lateef’s distinctive voice as an improviser is traced with respect to his autophysiopsychic exploration of world instruments including , double reeds, and chordophones, and his friendship with . The two shared a love of spiritual ex- ploration as well as the study of science, physics, symmetry, and mathematics. Lateef’s ethnomusico- logical research on Hausa music , as well as his other writings and visual art, deepen our un- derstanding of him as an artist-scholar who cleared the way for the presence of autophysiopsychic mu- sicians in the academy.

It is no secret that the use of the word “jazz” to de- scribe the canonic music we associate with Louis Armstrong, , , , and John Coltrane has long been contest- ed. The “J-word,” which, according to many, be- gan as sexual slang, has been viewed as a market- ing category, a white-perpetuated label to place African American music in a box, and a term that through its voyeuristic association with illicit ac- tivities became racially offensive. Duke Ellington found it a category he did not want to be associat- ed with, a feeling shared by musicians across many generations from and ingrid monson is the Quin- cy Jones Professor of African to Nicholas Payton and Muhal Richard Abrams. American Music at Harvard Uni- Yusef Lateef was among those who objected to the versity. She is the author of Free- word.1 Lateef’s word to describe this music was dom Sounds: Civil Rights Call Out autophysiopsychic. to Jazz and Africa (2007), The Af- rican Diaspora: A Musical Per- I call my music autophysiopsychic music. This word spective (2000), and Saying Some- means music from one’s physical, spiritual and men- thing: Jazz Improvisation and Inter- tal self: i.e., music from the heart. In other words, action (1996). my music is a conduit whereby and through which

© 2019 by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences doi:10.1162/DAED_a_01746

104 Providence may reveal some of the beau- Max Roach, Charles Mingus, and Char- Ingrid ties of creation to the ears of those who lis- lie Parker, he was an intellectual as well Monson ten with their ears and their hearts.2 as a musician. Yusef Lateef was an artist- scholar of the kind that academia now Lateef’s word autophysiopsychic crys- welcomes, yet he had to wait until he was talizes a deep aesthetic, psychological, sixty-eight years old for his first full-time and ethical philosophy that lay at the academic post.3 Lateef’s view of the inter­ center of his life as a musician, compos- relationship between music, intellect, and er, Muslim, writer, visual artist, and pro- humane development has much to tell us fessor. In this essay, I first explore Lateef’s about why this music still matters. musical and psychological concept of Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/148/2/104/1831417/daed_a_01746.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 autophysiopsychic as well as its relation- Yusef Abdul Lateef’s deepest discussion ship to Ahmadiyya Islamic understand- of the idea of autophysiopsychic music ings of spiritual development through is found in his essay “The Pleasures of knowledge and religious practice. Islam- the Voice in Autophysiopsychic Music.” ic ideas linking the physical, intellectu- Here Lateef attempts to describe the link- al, and spiritual lie at the very center of age between the character and person- his neologism, while its musical prac- ality of the musician and the emotion- tice links his vision to compatible West- al quality of the music created by him or ern and African American understand- her. Creating autophysiopsychic music, ings of acquiring an authentic, warm, in his view, requires three kinds of voice: and humane musical voice. Lateef wrote the audible voice, the dramatic voice, and about the term autophysiopsychic late in the artist’s own voice. his life, after having led a distinguished Sounds with audible voice give us the sense career as a bandleader, , and of a sound coming from the whole being of sideman. the musician–; and they touch us–they I then trace Lateef’s development of his seem to give us energy, or a sensation, rath- personal voice and friendship with John er than requiring energy to listen.4 Coltrane, as well as his wide-ranging in- tellectual explorations of music, mathe- To this he contrasts with “inaudible matics, science, philosophy, organology, voice,” or a person whose concern with and his self-taught ethnomusicological other things, such as technique, may study of Hausa playing in Nigeria. stand in the way of communicating his or Throughout his life he pursued educa- her humanity. tion in colleges and universities, includ- Valid presenters use their technique, only ing , Manhattan to project their character, their vast array School of Music, and the University of of experiences, thoughts, feelings, con- Massachusetts Amherst, while simulta- cerns and ideas that are entombed in their neously engaging deeply in Islamic study brain’s memory–and more than that–I through the Ahmadiyya branch of Is- will say: they speak with their heart.5 lam, which he joined in 1948. In 1988, he became a professor at the University of The musician who successfully creates Massachusetts Amherst, part of the Five an audible voice has the ability to “trans- Colleges, where he taught until his retire- form the events of their mind and heart ment in 2002. Yusef Lateef was a lifelong into sound,” a process that he says is autodidact who followed his interests to “not unlike elegant rational scientists– wherever they led. Like John Coltrane, they only operate with deeply different

148 (2) Spring 2019 105 Yusef Lateef’s grammars.” The heart, as Lateef notes, is be heard in “Yusef’s Mood” from 1957.9 Autophysio- “the seat of the intellect.”6 As we will see, Lateef’s own develop- psychic Quest When “the sound of the music seems to ment of his personal voice can be chart- tell us what kind of person is playing” the ed through his exploration of the flute, autophysiopsychic musician has achieved the , and non-Western instruments a dramatic voice. The listener is drawn of many kinds. closer to the personality of the musician, who seems to project a character respon- In joining the Ahmadiyya Movement in sible for the sound. Throughout this essay, 1948, Lateef entered an Islamic commu- Lateef takes as an example nity that had attracted many other mu-

of what he means by his autophysiopsy- sicians of the era, including Art Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/148/2/104/1831417/daed_a_01746.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 chic ideal. “When listening to his music,” Blakey, , Dakota Staton, Sa- he noted, “your ear will tell you that his hib Shihab, and , among character was warm and sensitive.”7 others. The Ahmadis practice an inclu- For Lateef, the development of one’s sive multiracial form of Islam that stress- own voice was an achieved (rather than es finding peace by following the path of natural) quality that linked the explora- God (Allah) and Islamic education.10 In tion of musical craft to the development the 1920s, members of the Ahmadiyya of personal character. He explained Les- Movement published the first English ter Young’s musical voice as follows: translation of the Qur’an available in the He could treat notes so as to indicate assur- . Although their first pros- ance, by rapidly dropping the pitch, or in- elytizer, Mufti Muhammad Sadiq, in- dicate incompleteness by leveling the pitch tended to proselytize among all U.S. eth- in a manner which would suggest contin- nic groups, his own problems as a South uation, or when he thought it appropriate Asian in Jim Crow America led him to he would avoid traditional tones, by apply- concentrate on African Americans. The ing innovative fingerings, whereby he pro- Ahmadis in their early years were closely duced a new genre of sound textures. In allied with Marcus Garvey’s United Ne- conjunction with the sound textures that gro Improvement Association, but their he introduced let me say that: as a tone lan- insistence that whites as well as African guage uses changes in pitch to indicate dif- Americans were welcome in their com- ferences in the meanings of words–Les- munity put them at odds with other Is- ter used changes of texture, pitch and nu- lamic groups supporting black national- ance, tempered by his immaterial self, to ism. The Ahmadis, because they believe indicate differences in feelings or to put the their founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad to audience into a certain frame of mind. . . . be the Mahdi sent to reform Islam to its He never sounded as though he was con- true meaning, are considered to be her- fronted with an ambivalence in deciding etics and non-Muslims by many main- what was central to his message–always stream Muslim sects, despite their full observance of the pillars of Islam and convincing, authentic, and the logos, the 11 proof, or apparent proof of his artistry was practices of Islamic education. always there, provided by the sound of his In Islam, Yusef Lateef found a path of music itself, nurtured by the gentle soul intensive study, as well as ethical and spir- that he was.8 itual development that guided his life. Through the Ahmadiyya movement he Lester Young served as a model for studied the Qur’an, the Arabic language, Yusef Lateef’s own tenor playing, as can as well as the deeds and sayings of the

106 Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences Prophet Muhammad. A distinguishing the mind and heart. True knowledge is that Ingrid feature of Islam to Lateef was its commit- which emerges from the mind and regu- Monson ment to education, something that he em- lates and trains all the limbs, and manifests phasized in his 1975 doctoral dissertation. in practice all the store of memory. Thus In the light of commandments of the Qu- knowledge is strengthened and fostered ran and the traditions, the Muslims, at all through its impress being imposed on all times, retained learning and its diffusion a the limbs by practical experience. No type distinctive feature of their social life, as if of knowledge, however elementary, arrives it were an article of Faith with them. The at its climax without practice. culture and civilization of Islam is based on Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/148/2/104/1831417/daed_a_01746.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 education.12 Here we see how Yusef Lateef’s succinct definition of autophysiopsychic music as The dissertation compared Western “music from one’s physical, mental and and Islamic philosophies of education, spiritual self” includes in one word the and illustrated Lateef’s wide reading in process of spiritual development advo- both education literatures. cated by his religion. The final stage of A key teaching of Islam is that the path spiritual development taught by the Ah- to spiritual development arrives not only madis arises from arriving at the level in through faith, but also through reason. which a person can converse with God. According to Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, The cleansing water which removes all The Quran has adopted two methods for doubt, that mirror through which that Su- the understanding of God. First, the meth- preme Being can be seen, is converse with od whereby human reason is strengthened the Divine that I have just mentioned. and illumined for the purpose of setting Let him whose soul seeks the truth arise forth reasons in support of the existence of and search. I tell you truly that if souls are God, and thus saves a person from falling charged with true seeking and hearts devel- into error.13 op true thirst, people would search for that way and would seek that path.15 In The Philosophy of the Teachings of Is- lam, a central text for the Ahmadis, Ah- Lateef’s widow Ayesha Lateef stressed mad explains over several chapters the that, in Islam, reason and faith are one, but process of evolving from the human be- added that many Muslims don’t under- ing’s “natural condition of barbarity to a stand that. Her own explanation notes that moral state, and then to lift him from that “the work of God, which is the creation, state to the limitless ocean of spiritual- and the word of God, which is the revela- ity.”14 Key to transforming natural con- tion, should sync together.” She also em- ditions into moral qualities is the acqui- phasized that “Yusef was not just a statis- sition of knowledge through reason. Ac- tical Muslim. He absorbed the teachings cording to Ahmad, the Qur’an contains and he made them his own.” 16 Through- reasoned arguments for the existence of out his life, these Islamic teachings guided God that will persuade rather than coerce Lateef’s quest for knowledge and spiritu- the penitent to follow the path of Islam. al and musical development. Knowledge Acquiring knowledge leads to spiritual and reason provided the fulcrum through practice and its transformation into em- which he moved between his religious bodied knowledge. community, the professional world of mu- These verses indicate that there is no vir- sic, and the academic scene of colleges and tue in the knowledge that is confined to universities.

148 (2) Spring 2019 107 Yusef Lateef’s Yusef Lateef began achieving his own the world, particularly India or Asia and Autophysio- distinctive voice in autophysiopsyhic then later Africa. And then also you know, psychic Quest music in 1950s . In many ways, the recitation of the Qur’an you know, he pioneered a non-Western sensibility which in Arabic has a melody to it. I kind of to improvisational exploration, charac- feel like eventually it would have happened terized by the use of world instruments anyway whether he was a Muslim or not, that would be taken up more broadly in but being Muslim fed it.19 the 1960s by partisans of the avant-garde. Although Lateef, who had been known as In 1957 he lived in the Ahmadiyya Bill Evans before his conversion to Islam, mosque in Detroit where he served as

had met considerable success as a tenor its imam and developed a curriculum Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/148/2/104/1831417/daed_a_01746.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 saxophonist in Chicago and New York in for Islamic instruction for children and the late 1940s, where he had worked with adults.20 That same year he recorded Jazz Eugene Wright and , his Moods, an featuring for the first wife Sadie’s ill health made him return time these new instruments. “Metaphor” to Detroit in 1951. Detroit’s thriving jazz opens with a Middle Eastern sound- scene included musicians like Milt Jack- ing argol solo, accompanied by the re- son, , , Kenny bab, which is followed by a more ortho- Burrell, , and Betty Carter. Al- dox instrumentation featuring Lateef on though Lateef had a strong and confident flute and Curtis Fuller on trombone. The tenor sax sound, encour- rhythm section included Hugh Lawson aged him to add the flute and to study on , Ernie Farrow on bass and , music theory and composition at places on drums, and like the Larry Teal School of Music and on percussion. Wayne State University. At the former, Lateef sought to break the mold in his Lateef encountered the Schillinger sys- ensemble sound through the instruments tem, a highly abstract and mathematical of other cultures. He began doing re- approach to thinking through rhythm, search at the public library on the instru- periodicity, and permutation. At the lat- ments of Japan, China, Africa, and In- ter, he studied , including dia. He also began making his own flutes, Arnold Schoenberg and his serial meth- such as the pneumatic bamboo flute. La- ods of composition. In addition to flute, teef through his interest in organology Lateef began studying oboe and exploring and cultural variety was becoming his a variety of non-Western instruments.17 own self-taught ethnomusicologist. Detroit in the 1950s was home to a In following the development of La- large Arab population. Lateef not only teef’s particular voice, it is clear that he met co-religionists but discovered in- was particularly drawn to the timbral va- struments from the Arab world through riety made possible through playing mul- friends and at a Syrian spice store in the tiple instruments. Although some of his Eastern Market section of Detroit. These compositions sounded non-Western, La- instruments included the argol, a double teef’s musical language was deeply root- reed instrument, and the rebab, a string ed in the , jazz, and bebop, whose ex- instrument.18 Ayesha Lateef explained pressive sensibility he had developed on his interest in world instruments: the tenor , which he also con- I think a lot of it had to do with being an tinued to play. On the flute and oboe, La- Ahmadi. Meeting Ahmadis from around teef seemed to be able to inflect his melo- dies in new directions, as can be heard on

108 Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences his extraordinary performance of “Oboe In 1963, Impulse! allowed Lateef to Ingrid Blues” in 1959.21 record an album called Jazz ’Round the Monson Lateef moved back to New York in 1960, World, on which he played a variety of in- where he began working with Lonnie struments and featured a selection of folk Hillyer, Charles Mingus, Babatunde Ola- songs from around the world, including tunji, and , and be- “The Volga Rhythm Song,” a Japanese came a first call for recording sessions. folk song called “Ringo Oiwake,” and his Shortly thereafter he was able to buy a own beautiful flute feature “Utopia.” In home in Teaneck, New Jersey, where he his autobiography, Lateef talks about the moved with his family. He toured inter- mixed reception he received. Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/148/2/104/1831417/daed_a_01746.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 nationally with Adderley, including Eu- While many have told me how much they rope and Japan. Lateef played swinging enjoyed the Arabic and Asian mix of the al- straight-ahead tenor in the group, but Ad- bum we created–Richard Williams (trum- derley also featured him on flute, oboe, pet), Hugh Lawson (piano), and Lex Hum- and even bamboo flute. Although he clear- phries (drums)–others have rejected it, ly could have continued a mainstream jazz feeling it’s not what they expected. Some career in the top groups of the day, Lateef’s were reluctant to accept it, but humanity quest for his personal voice led him deeper is that way; there are divisions. I remem- into his world music explorations. ber using an Indian drone instrument on a On the album from 1961, piece called “Chandra” and a doctor called Lateef added the Chinese globular flute, me from Milwaukee. He was outraged that an instrument resembling an ocarina. I did that as though I had violated some- After reading about this ancient instru- thing, transgressed a cardinal sin.22 ment (also known as the xun) he searched for one in New York’s Chinatown. “The Lateef’s commitment to his artistic di- Plum Blossom” opens with an extend- rection, in other words, cost him in some ed solo on the globular flute made up of corners of the jazz world. four notes (A3, C#4, D4, E4) and accom- During the 1950s, Lateef also developed panied by the rebab. His gradual devel- a deep friendship with John Coltrane. In opment of a three-note riff-like theme, notes in his personal papers, he created a varied through embellishment and sub- timeline of his friendship with Coltrane. tle rhythmic variation, showcases the ap- He first heard of him in 1946 and then met pealing low register of the globular flute, him for the first time at the Click Club in the soft but swinging articulations of La- during a rehearsal with Jim- teef, and his ability to captivate with min- my Heath in 1949. When he returned to imal materials. Joe Goldberg, who wrote New York to record in 1956, he saw John the liner notes for the album, seemed not Coltrane with Miles Davis at the Cafe Bo- to know quite what to say about the East- hemia in the Village. In 1957, while re- ern references on the album and its un- cording with Savoy, he visited Coltrane usual instrumentation, so he talked about on 103rd Street and they practiced togeth- the two pieces from film soundtracks and er. Coltrane sometimes played Detroit, as the straight-ahead tenor ballad “Don’t he did in 1958 with Miles Davis’s group, Blame Me” before tackling the oboe solo and they saw each other. When Lateef on “Blues for the Orient” and the globular and his family moved back to New York flute. On this album, Lateef’s sonic exper- in 1960, he got together with Coltrane iments were balanced by straight-ahead more frequently, even sitting in with him pieces likely to appeal to any jazz fan. once at the Village Gate. They were both

148 (2) Spring 2019 109 Yusef Lateef’s deeply interested in symmetry, science, key decade in the independence of Afri- Autophysio- and religion and had similarly gentle per- can nations and a broader African-Asian psychic Quest sonalities. In 1961, Coltrane gave Lateef a alliance against colonialism. Islam it- birthday present of a mandala-like dia- self was associated with an anticolonial- gram tracing multiple levels of symmetry ist perspective on the African continent. in an expanded circle of fifths. Lateef in- Lateef showed his awareness of the Af- cluded this in the opening of his Resposi- rican freedom struggle in his partici- tory of Scales and Melodic Patterns in 1981, pation on ’s Uhuru Africa itself bearing witness to his own fascina- album in 1960 and ’s album tions with symmetries, cycles, and scales African Beat in 1962. Here, Africans, jazz

from around the world.23 Near the end of musicians, Latinx musicians, and Mus- Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/148/2/104/1831417/daed_a_01746.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 Coltrane’s life, Lateef, Babatunde Olatun- lims collaborated on a pan-African sound ji, and Coltrane were planning to give a that appeared just as the newly emerging concert at Avery Fisher Hall in 1968, as well African nations were joining the United as collaborate on developing a family- Nations and sending diplomatic delega- oriented musical recreation center. 24 tions to New York. On African Beat, Lateef There has long been speculation as to played with Nigerian percussionist Solo- whether John Coltrane was a Muslim. mon Ilori, Art Blakey, , Ahmed The prayer in , with its de- Abdul-Malik, Curtis Fuller, and several cided emphasis on a singular God, thank- others. Lateef’s beautiful flute sound can fulness, and mercy, is in keeping with the be heard on “Ero Ti Nr’ojeje.”27 monotheism of Islam and, for some, re- Other autophysiopsychic musicians sembles the words of the Al-Fatiha, the were also demonstrating global aware- first surah of the Qur’an.25 It is also com- ness in their music. John Coltrane’s Africa patible with the Vedanta Hindu idea of album, for example, was released just days the One, which became a larger part of before Lateef recorded the Eastern Sounds his spiritual interests after meeting Alice Album; Max Roach’s We Insist! Freedom Coltrane in 1963. According to Ayesha Now Suite in 1960 had invoked Africa with Lateef, some Ahmadis have claimed that ’s drumming on “Af- Coltrane was an Ahmadi, but she notes rica”; and bassist Ahmed Abdul Malik that there is no record of him ever hav- played the oud in the piece “Tears from ing joined the community. His first wife Johannesburg” on his 1959 album East was a Muslim, but she was not an Meets West. Coltrane’s recording of “In- Ahmadi. Ayesha Lateef, who mentioned dia” in 1963 gestured East and by 1965 on how often her husband talked of Col- the album Kulu Se Mama Coltrane began trane, thinks that the two may have had including instruments like hand percus- conversations about Islam and hears in A sion and shakers that went beyond stan- Love Supreme an “anthem for the one God dard jazz instrumentation. Exploring Af- according to Islam.” She concludes that rican instruments, in particular, was em- Coltrane “wasn’t against Islam.”26 braced by musicians interested in black In the broadest sense, Lateef’s interest power and cultural nationalism.28 in global musical instruments was also political. His Muslim faith and knowl- Yusef Lateef’s strong interest in acquir- edge of the presence of Islam around the ing Western education and credentials globe may have first opened his ears to also continued. After undertaking his the sounds of the Middle East, Africa, In- first pilgrimage to in early 1966, he dia, and Asia, but the 1950s were also a returned to New York and enrolled in the

110 Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences Manhattan School of Music where, by around the world: England, Denmark, Ingrid 1969, he had received his bachelor’s de- Norway, Pakistan, India, Ghana, Egypt, Monson gree in flute performance and a master’s and Tunisia. During these years he add- degree in . For Lateef, Is- ed writing short stories to his long list of lamic education and Western education interests and began working on the scales were twin paths that he undertook simul- and exercises that would become his fa- taneously. He enjoyed studying not only mous Repository of Scales and Melodic Pat- the flute under former New York Philhar- terns, published in 1981. He spent the next monic flutist John Wummer, but also tak- four years as a senior research fellow at ing courses in literature and art history. the Center for Nigeria Cultural Studies at

By 1971, Lateef was teaching music theory Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Nige- Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/148/2/104/1831417/daed_a_01746.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 at the Borough of Manhattan Communi- ria, one of the original Hausa city-states ty College (bmcc), while also enrolled in and home to Nigeria’s largest universi- courses at the New School in philosophy ty. The Hausa are among the most prom- and symbolic logic. Among his students inent West African Muslim groups. He were and . researched the Sarewa flute, played by While teaching at bmcc, he began a Fulani herdsmen; taught research meth- doctoral program in education at the Uni- odology to cultural officers at the Center versity of Massachusetts Amherst under for Nigeria Cultural Studies; and stud- the mentorship of music theorist and pi- ied African music and drama. The fruit of anist Roland Wiggins. His dissertation this research was a book he coauthored “An Overview of Western and Islamic Ed- with Ziky Kofoworola (a Nigerian dra- ucation” explains to an English speaking maturge) called Hausa Performing Arts and audience the principles of qur’anic study Music, published in 1987. The book is a and scholarship in dialogue and compari- serious piece of ethnomusicological re- son with Western writers on education– search including interviews with Hausa including Thomas Jefferson, Karl Jaspers, herdsman, transcriptions, and organo- Immanuel Kant, Bertrand Russell, Jean logical diagrams of Hausa instruments. Piaget, and John Dewey–finding points Lateef and Kofoworola had been com- where Islamic and Western views con- missioned by Nigeria’s Minister of Cul- verge and diverge. Just before he received ture to produce the book, and I think that his Ed.D., and one day before he became the Society for Ethnomusicology should eligible for tenure, Lateef learned that formally recognize Yusef Lateef’s contri- bmcc had terminated him–an action bution to our field.30 that smacks of an administrative manip- Lateef’s In Nigeria, an album recorded ulation all too common in educational in Lagos in 1983 with Hausa, Yoruba, and institutions at the time. In the 1970s, jazz Tiv drummers, presents what he calls a programs were not valued, their instruc- hybrid suite of dance pieces accompanied tors usually served in the lower ranks of by traditional drummers, which include the administrative hierarchy, and Afri- reference not only to African life, but Ja- can Americans were particularly vulnera- maica (on “Mu Omi”) and Indian raga ble to being dropped. Lateef mused in his with drone (on “Lalit”).31 “Curved Space- autobiography: “Despite being in posses- time” features Lateef performing a call sion of three post-graduate degrees, I was and response with himself on tenor and without a teaching position.”29 flute accompanied by traditional drums, So he went on the road. Between 1975 including a talking drum. Quoting physi- and 1980, he took his band and family cist Fritjof Capra on the elasticity of time

148 (2) Spring 2019 111 Yusef Lateef’s in Einstein’s curved universe in the lin- to Yusef Lateef’s Song Book, offering in- Autophysio- er notes, Lateef thematizes a familiar as- sight into the kind of effect he had on his psychic Quest cending arpeggiated passage from John students. Coltrane’s “” solo and re- The range and breadth of Lateef’s musical sponds on the flute to his tenor. The result travels is astonishing, but what is most in- is a kind of African “Giant Steps” accom- spiring to me is something else, something panied by a warm, low-toned, resonant more difficult to explain. He brings an over- groove. arching, singularly intense mindset to all of When he returned to Western Massa- his projects, using all the possible tools at chusetts in 1985, Lateef focused on com- his disposal–scientific and intuitive, old Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/148/2/104/1831417/daed_a_01746.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 posing, which led to the recording of Little and new, individual and collective, distant Symphony in 1987, an album on which he and close to home–to probe the nature of played all instruments. Producer Nesuhi his feelings and thoughts. As a student, I Ertegun helped arrange an Atlantic con- marveled at the ease with which he flowed tract for the record and it won a Gram- among different approaches to making my in the New Age category in 1988. Fi- music, different states of consciousness. nally, that same year, the University of While working within technically complex Massachusetts hired Lateef as an associ- frameworks, he is always able to keep his ate professor of music. He was sixty-eight ears and imagination open to new possibil- by then but went on to teach for fourteen ities, to unexpected directions that the ma- years and was named a Five College Dis- terial might generate.34 tinguished Professor of Music. While there, Lateef not only taught but start- Yusef Lateef’s autophysiopsychic quest, ed a record company called yal, com- fusing intellectual, physical, and spiritu- posed, wrote novels, and completed hun- al development, reminds us of the long dreds of visual artworks.32 His student dedication of musicians to knowledge of Michael Didonna, a photographer and multiple kinds.35 Since the bebop era, jazz musician, created a short film in honor artists have viewed themselves as both an of Lateef called , in which intelligentsia and a spiritual community he can be heard talking about some of his devoted to musical exploration. Few art- educational philosophy.33 Michael Des- ists have more thoroughly theorized the sen, a trombonist, composer, and former connection between the two than Yusef student of Lateef, wrote the introduction Lateef.

endnotes 1 For an overview of this debate, see Nicholas Payton, “On Why Jazz Isn’t Cool Anymore,” No- vember 27, 2011, https://nicholaspayton.wordpress.com/2011/11/27/on-why-jazz-isnt-cool -anymore; Terry Teachout, “When Jazz Was a Dirty Word,” The Wall Street Journal, March 8, 2013, https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324582804578344330801433790; and Ivan Hewett, “Abdullah Ibrahim Interview: ‘I Don’t Like the Word Jazz,’” The Telegraph, No- vember 14, 2017, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/interviews/abdullah-ibrahim-interview -dont-like-word-jazz. 2 Yusef Lateef, “Reflections on the Social Relevance of Black Improvised Music,” keynote lec- ture for the symposium “Lost in Diversity–A Transatlantic Dialogue on the Social Relevance of Jazz,” Heidelberg Center for American Studies, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Ger- many, November 8–9, 2012. I thank Ayesha Lateef for sharing the text with me.

112 Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences 3 I am thinking in particular of the professorships of George Lewis at Columbia University and Ingrid Vijay Iyer at Harvard University. Monson 4 Yusef A. Lateef, “The Pleasures of Voice in Autophysiopsychic Music” (undated), https:// yuseflateef.com/literature/essays. 5 Ibid. 6 Ibid. 7 Ibid. 8 Ibid. 9 Yusef Lateef, “Yusef’s Mood,” on , Savoy, 1957. The track can be heard on YouTube

at https://youtu.be/SMVslFUIx0A (accessed January 29, 2019). Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/148/2/104/1831417/daed_a_01746.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 10 Members of this community refer to themselves as “Ahmadis.” The religion itself is known as the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community or the Ahmadiyya Movement. 11 A brief overview of the Ahmadiyya Movement can be found in Ingrid Monson, “Art Blakey’s African Diaspora,” in The African Diaspora: A Musical Perspective, ed. Ingrid Monson (New York: Garland Press, 2000), 337–338. A more comprehensive account of the Ahmadis and their intersections with other African American Muslim groups can be found in Patrick D. Bowen, A History of Conversion to Islam in the United States, Volume 2: The African American Is- lamic Renaissance, 1920–1975 (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2017). Pakistan, a traditional center of Ahmadi activity, declared Ahmadis legally non-Muslim, which led to their migra- tion to other locations. The current headquarters of the Ahmadis is in . See Al Islam, “Ahmadiyya Muslim Community,” https://www.alislam.org/library/ahmadiyya-muslim -community (accessed Jan 22, 2019). 12 Yusef Lateef, “An Overview of Western and Islamic Education” (Ed.D. diss., University of Massachusetts, 1975), 10. 13 Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, The Philosophy of the Teachings of Islam, trans. Sir Muhammad Zafulla Khan (London: Islam International Publications, 2017), 86–87. I thank Ayesha Lateef for giv- ing me a copy of this book. 14 Ibid., 24. 15 Ibid., 198. 16 Author interview with Ayesha Lateef, January 9, 2019, Shutesbury, Massachusetts. I thank Ayesha Lateef for meeting with me and sharing her observations and archival documents. 17 Biographical information, unless otherwise indicated, is drawn from Yusef Lateef and Herb Boyd, The Gentle Giant: The Autobiography of Yusef Lateef (Irvington, N.J.: Morton Books, 2006). 18 There are many romanized spellings for the argol, including arghul and arghool. I use the spell- ing that appears on Lateef’s . 19 Author interview with Ayesha Lateef, January 9, 2019, Shutesbury, Massachusetts. 20 Yusef Lateef, “An Overview of Western and Islamic Education,” 7. 21 Yusef Lateef, “Oboe Blues,” on The Dreamer, Savoy, 1959. Yusef Lateef, oboe; , piano; William Austin, bass; Frank Grant, percussion. 22 Lateef and Boyd, The Gentle Giant. 23 Yusef Lateef, Respository of Scales and Musical Patterns (Amherst, Mass.: fana Music, 1981). Physicist Stephon Alexander explains the multiple symmetries in Coltrane’s diagram in The Jazz of Physics (New York: Basic Books, 2016), 222–226. 24 Yusef Lateef, Coltrane timeline, personal papers. I thank Ayesha Lateef for sharing these doc- uments with me.

148 (2) Spring 2019 113 Yusef Lateef’s 25 Coltrane’s poem begins: “I will do all I can to be worthy of Thee O Lord. It all has to do with Autophysio- it. Thank you God. Peace. There is none other.” John Coltrane, liner notes to A Love Supreme, psychic Quest Impulse!, 1964. The Al-Fatiha begins: “In the Name of God, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy. Praise belongs to God, Lord of the worlds, the Lord of Mercy, Master of the Day of Judgement. It is You we Worship; it is You we ask for help.” The Qur’an, trans. M. A. S. Abdel Haleem (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). 26 Author interview with Ayesha Lateef, January 9, 2019, Shutesbury, Massachusetts. 27 Art Blakey, , Blue Note, 1962. 28 I discuss this interconnection in chapter six of my book Freedom Sounds: Civil Rights Call Out to Jazz and Africa (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).

29 Lateef and Boyd, The Gentle Giant. Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/148/2/104/1831417/daed_a_01746.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 30 Ziky Kofoworola and Yusef Lateef, “Hausa Performing Arts and Music,” Nigeria Magazine, 1987. 31 Yusef Lateef, In Nigeria, yal, 1983. 32 A major exhibit of Lateef’s artworks titled Yusef Lateef: Towards the Unknown was held at the Trinosophes Cafe in Detroit in 2015. 33 Michael Didonna, The Gentle Giant [film], http://michaeldidonna.com/film/2016/9/22/ the-gentle-giant. 34 Michael Dessen, preface to Yusef Lateef Song Book (Amherst, Mass.: fana Music/yal, 2005). 35 For a rich description of the wide variety of learning philosophies in jazz, see Paul F. Berliner, Thinking in Jazz: The Infinite Art of Improvisation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994).

114 Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences