Eastern Sounds is a studio album by the jazz multi-instrumentalist and composer Yusef Lateef.
The opening track features Lateef on Chinese globular flute,[4] generally called xun.
[5] The fusing of musical genres was not a new thing in jazz or for Lateef as his 1957 album Prayer to the East incorporated the shehnai and Middle Eastern influences in playing jazz standards.
[6] In addition to original compositions by Lateef, Eastern Sounds includes covers of themes from the films Spartacus and The Robe, which have been sampled by producers Nujabes and Blockhead, respectively.
Singer-songwriter Cat Stevens was inspired by the melody of the opening track to write his first hit single "I Love My Dog" (1966).