The CD release of “ Towards the Unknown” celebrates Grammy award winner and 2009 NEA jazz master Yusef Lateef’s 90th Birthday year. It is the fourth CD co-composed with his 20-year collaborator, 2009 Chamber Music America New Works grant recipient Adam Rudolph. Lateef composed a percussion concerto for Rudolph that features 13 members of the SEM ensemble conducted by Petr Kotik. Rudolph improvises on a wide variety of percussion including his hand drum set (kongos and djembe) with the chamber orchestra. Rudolph’s composition “ Concerto for Brother Yusef” features an incredible tenor sax and percussion duet that reaches to the Rand B dance traditions while sounding ever modern. Rudolph orchestrated this work with the 11-piece string section of his Go: Organic Orchestra. A unique and soulful recording.