Mati Klarwein sobre Yousef Lateef

In the late fifties the great jazz musician Yusef Lateef received a portrait of himself from a painter named Abdul Mati. Lateef was portrayed as almost buried in a pile of exotic flowers, apparently enjoying himself with whatever he was doing. The artist waited for some time for any kind of response - but none came.

Finally he decided to call the big man himself and as it turned out Mr. Lateef had liked the painting very much and asked Abdul Mati to come down to the Village Vanguard, where he was performing at the time. And so Mati did.

- Across the top of the painting I'd written Original Portrait of the Great Yusef Lateef Hand Painted by Abdul Mati. After the gig we were supposed to discuss the future use of the painting as a record cover. So when the concert was over I went over to his table. I addressed him, he looked at me, but continued his discussion with the others at the table. So I addressed him again and introduced myself as the artist who'd sent him the portrait. Once again I was ignored and this time he didn't even bother to look up...

- Yusef Lateef doesn't like white people and obviously he thought that a man called Abdul would be anything but white, Mati says and shrugs his shoulders a little dejectedly.


Ler este relato deixou-me um pouco triste, a música de Lateef acabou de perder para mim quase toda a sua magia.

fonte

ver outras pinturas de Mati Klarwein