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ARTISTS: LIONEL & STEPHANE BELMONDO and YUSEF LATEEF
Title: Influence

Label: B Flat Recordings
Catalogue Number: 6124872

Personnel:
YUSEF LATEEF, Tenor Sax, Flute, Alto Flute, Ethnic Flutes, Oboe, Moan Flute, Pneumatic Flute, Chinese Flute; LIONEL BELMONDO Tenor Sax, Soprano Sax, Alto Flute, Clarinet, Percussion; STEPHANE BELMONDO, Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Shell, Percussion etc.

Track Listing (CD 1):
1. Shafaa (Belmondo)
2. Si Tout Ceci N’Est Qu’un Pauvre Reve (Boulanger arr Belmondo)
3. Apres le Jeu (Sasso)
4. Influence (Sasso)
5. Orgatique (Belmondo)

Track Listing (CD 2):
1. An Afternoon In Chatanooga (Lateef)
2. Suite Overtime(Lateef arr. Belmondo/Sasso)
   a.) Morning
   b.) Metaphor
   c.) Iqbal
   d.) Brother John
3. Le Jardin (Lateef)

NEW RELEASE FROM AWARD WINNING FRENCH JAZZ LABEL

The Belmondo brothers’ new album Influence is a tribute to Yusef Lateef. The veteran American musician, now 85 years of age and a one-time friend of John Coltrane, not only plays on the album, but will also be performing a series of international dates with the Belmondos.

“ONE OF THE MOST RESPECTED MAINSTREAM (HARD BOP) BANDS IN EUROPE”

One of the great achievements of this record is that it is evidently the next step after the Belmondos’ Hymne Au Soleil and it also manages to be a logical extension of Yusef Lateef’s own work. Not a lot of people know that Lateef’s work contains a richness stemming from many types of composition - from sonatas to symphonies. Two of Yusef Lateef’s pieces are featured on this recording and were composed specifically for this project.

Influence recalls an encounter that took shape between Lionel Belmondo and Yusef Lateef, two musicians whose origins were extremely different, but whose artistic approach is extremely close. Its exercise is the outcome of two years of hard work, of dedicated research, of intense live activity and of prolific composition. This natural collaboration between the three follows a history of respect and admiration. Lateef’s own compositions seem to be mirrored by the separate themes which form a suite to the Belmondo brothers’ ‘Infinity’ album, recorded in 1999. Moreover, when Lionel and Stéphane met their ‘elder sibling’, they naturally fell into symbiosis both personally and musically. The result is surely dynamite!

The Paris-based Brothers have worked with a who’s who of European and North American artists like Michel Legrand, Tom Harrell, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Horace Silver, DJ Frédéric Galliano, Francois Théberge, Jean-Michel Pilc, Johnny Griffin, and Lew Tabackin. Grammy Award-winning composer/performer/educator Yusef Lateef has been a major force on the international music scene for more than six decades. The 85-year-old master musician is acknowledged as one of the great innovators in the African American tradition. Never just a bop or hard bop soloist, Lateef released a string of Prestige and Impulse recordings in the ’50s and ’60s. As a virtuoso on a broad spectrum of instruments — tenor saxophone, flute, oboe, shanai (a type of oboe), argol (a kind of double clarinet) and koto — he has introduced delightful new sounds and blends of tone colours to audiences all over the world. Yusef’s résumé is long and varied and includes work with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Cannonball Adderley, Miles Davis, Elvin Jones, Adam Rudolph, Ricky Ford, Archie Shepp.
- AFAA

"Les frères Belmondo" are a popular fixture on the French jazz scene, but the guest star on their new album is a little less well-known this side of the Atlantic. Saxophonist Yusef Lateef is a bluesman who ranks as one of the most influential creators of Afro-American music. Born in the 1920s, Yusef lived through several eras of jazz and music became his passion, his escape route, his reason to live. (It should be remembered that, right up until 1965, "negroes" had not even the most basic of rights in the world's biggest "democracy."). Before his thirtieth birthday, Yusef converted to Islam and began expressing his newfound spirituality through his work, introducing the transverse flute and "exotic", non-European instruments not usually found in the jazz world. Broadening his musical horizons, Yusef trained in Nigeria for four years and, besides establishing himself as an avant-garde performer, also proved his talent as a composer. He discovered the work of Arnold Schoenberg in 1948, completed a PhD in music in 1959 (before Duke Ellington) and wrote a number of piano sonatas and two symphonies as well as various pieces for saxophone. In short, classical works – but only in so far as the term classical could be applied to the compositions of Fauré, Poulenc and Debussy!
Continuing his work in breaking down musical barriers, Yusef accepted Lionel and Stéphane Belmondo's invitation to participate in the making of their new album. The American 'statesman' had been particularly impressed by the brothers' work after listening to l’Hymne au soleil, an album on which the siblings recorded their own version of compositions by Lili Boulanger (1893-1918), Gabriel Fauré and the organist Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986). The Belmondos' new album, Influence, features Stéphane on trumpet while Lionel pairs up with Yusef on tenor and soprano sax and flute.
- Valérie Nivelon - Translation : Julie Street

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