Los Angeles – UPI
Grammy Award-winning, Tennessee-born jazz musician and composer Yusef Abdul Lateef has died at home in Shutesbury, Mass., said his official website. The famed saxophone player, who was raised in Detroit, was 93 when he died of age-related complications Monday. "He passed peacefully at home with loved ones," his website said. "He considered Detroit his home -- an incubator for wonderful musicians," Lateef's wife, Ayesha, told the Detroit News. "He expanded into the area that few ventured into in that time. ... He would call his music autophysiopsychic -- music for the soul, body and spirit." During his storied career, he performed with Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Milt Jackson, Tommy Flanagan, Barry Harris, Paul Chambers, Donald Byrd, Hank, Thad and Elvin Jones, Kenny Burrell and others, his website said. Lateef was also a Five College Consortium professor of music and music education from 1987 to 2002 in Massachusetts. The musician, who played the oboe and bassoon, as well as saxophone, was touring and performing up until last summer, the News said.