Yusef Lateef

Dr. Yusef Lateef (born William Emanuel Huddleston, October 9, 1920 – December 23, 2013) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer and educator and a renowned spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community after his conversion to Islam in 1950. Lateef was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, but his family moved to Detroit, Michigan in 1925.

Although Lateef's main instruments are the tenor saxophone and flute, he is known for his innovative blending of jazz with Eastern music. In addition to the oboe and bassoon, both rare in jazz, Lateef plays various non-Western instruments, notably the bamboo flute, shanai, shofar, arghul, sarewa, and koto.