Eastern Sounds (album)

Eastern Sounds is an album by jazz saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Yusef Lateef, recorded in 1961. The album features Lateef's continued exploration of Indian music, which were incorporated into his distinct brand of soulful hard bop with a quartet featuring Barry Harris on piano. The opening track features Lateef on Chinese globular flute, generally called the xun, which moves into a standard blues progression in D. The fusing of musical genres was not a new thing in jazz or for Lateef as his 1957 album Prayer to the East incorporated the shehnai and Middle Eastern influences in playing jazz standards. Furthermore John Coltrane was experimenting with the Indian modes with his quintet by the time of this album, but had yet to record any of these in the studio. Aside from Lateef's original compositions, there are covers of themes from the films Spartacus and The Robe.

Track listing

 * 1) "The Plum Blossom" (Yusef Lateef) – 5:03
 * 2) "Blues for the Orient" (Lateef) – 5:40
 * 3) "Chinq Miau" (Lateef) – 3:20
 * 4) "Don't Blame Me" (Dorothy Fields, Jimmy McHugh) – 4:57
 * 5) "Love Theme from Spartacus" (Alex North) – 4:15
 * 6) "Snafu" (Lateef) – 5:42
 * 7) "Purple Flower" (Lateef) – 4:32
 * 8) "Love Theme from The Robe" (Alfred Newman) – 4:02
 * 9) "The Three Faces of Balal" (Lateef) – 2:23

Personnel

 * Yusef Lateef – flute, oboe, tenor saxophone, xun (called "Chinese globular flute" in liner notes)
 * Barry Harris – piano
 * Ernie Farrow – double bass, Rabaab (called rabat in liner notes)
 * Lex Humphries – drums