If ever there were titles in jazz that act as a grand metaphor for the essence of the music here they are. To paraphrase: it is for the thinker. It is eastern. It is the other. It is something that you're into. These meanings are profound and the way they are represented musically by Lateef and a coterie of very able accompanists is astounding. The rare 1957 session Jazz For The Thinker is possibly of the greatest interest as the leader's seedlings of non-western music are beginning to flower but his grounding in the soil of swing is still strong, and more to the point, enticing. The move towards the musical traditions of the Middle and Far East – the development of what Lateef himself would call a form of ‘blues for the orient’– yields engrossing results on the remaining material, with the obvious highlight being the gorgeous ‘Love Theme From Spartacus’, where the oboe is introduced as an instrument with expressive power equal to that of the soprano saxophone. Elsewhere the deployment of other unheard devices, from the earth-board to the arghul and the Turkish finger cymbals, brings more textural riches that still sound modern and progressive, some 50 years down the line. Simply inspirational.