The Universal Quartet – Light (CD)

&ldquoLIGHT&rdquo IS THE NEW ALBUM FROM UNIVERSAL QUARTET FEAT. YUSEF LATEEF. A SEQUEL TO THE PRAISED DEBUT ALBUM FROM 2009.

Universal Quartet was founded in August 2008 by trumpeter Kasper Tranberg and drummer Kresten Osgood &ndash two strong voices on the European jazz scene today. With their new release &ldquoLight&rdquo released on ILK Music they continue their historic collaboration with american master musicians Adam Rudolph and Yusef Lateef.

Universal Quartet plays music composed by all four members:

&ldquoThe sounds created are ancient and very contemporary at the same time – nobody in the world is making this kind of music. We call it the music for the future.&rdquo

This unique recording was recorded and produced during two days in Copenhagen. Not just a blowing session but a creative work of art with strong compositional textures, rhythmic explorations and mindblowing improvisations. Add to that a string of heartfelt &ldquoballads&rdquo and the touching storytelling-vocal of Brother Yusef Lateef.

The musical point of departure is the relation between the sound of wood, skin and metal &ndash an instrumentation as old as mankind. It is in the meeting between these primeral sounds that wind players Lateef and Tranberg on the one side and percussionists Osgood and Rudolph on the other creates a timeless sound that portrays both Man&rsquos natural limitations as well as the notion that music is a supernatural entity which enables us human beings to rise above our inbred inhibitions.

Kresten Osgood and Kasper Tranberg are known for their work as sidemen in countless musical settings as well as leading their own groups and releasing a string of albums with such notables as Paul Bley, Sam Rivers, Marc Ducret, John Tchicai etc.

Yusef Lateef is unique in the history of jazz. He had his recording debut in 1949 on a session with Dizzy Gillespie and has gone on to play with many of the heaviest

innovators in jazz – like Count Basie, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Cannonball

Adderley, Joe Zawinul and Art Blakey, to name a few. Yet Lateef is an important

innovator himself. He is recognized as one of the best improvisers on the flute, while his saxophone playing is deeply original and respected throughout the world. Today Yusef Lateef is 92 years old and playing with unabated strength and creativity, but &ndash due to his exclusiveness &ndash he records very seldom and this is only his 3rd studio recording in 13 years, two of them with Universal Quartet !

Adam Rudolph is a master percussionist, composer and currently the most innovative bandleader around. His &ldquoGo Organic Ochestra&rdquo and &ldquoMoving Pictures Octet&rdquo are setting the standard for how creative music can be made across genres, style and culturel background. Brother Adam is also known for his work with Don Cherry, Mandingo Griot Society,Muhal Richard Abrams, Pharaoh Sanders, Yusef Lateef and many others.

1: Antenna

2: 1.425

3: Cobra

4 :For Randy Weston

5: Fratres In Aeternum

6: 1.1875

7: Brother Yusef

8: DeathTheMorning

9: Cobra &ndash Postlude

ILK