5 STARS AllMusic One of multi-instrumentalist and composer Yusef Lateef's most enduring recordings, Eastern Sounds was one of the last recordings made by the band that Lateef shared with pianist Barry Harris after the band moved to New York from Detroit, where the jazz scene was already dying. Lateef had long been interested in Eastern music, long before John Coltrane had ever shown any public interest anyway, so this Moodsville session was drenched in Lateef's current explorations of Eastern mode and interval, as well as tonal and polytonal improvisation. The themes set up the deep blues and wondrous ballad extrapolations Lateef was working on, which add such depth and dimension to the Eastern flavored music that it is hard to imagine them coming from the same band. Awesome. (Thom Jurek)
