Randy Weston, April 6, 1926 – September 1st 2018, was an American jazz composer and pianist. Duke Ellington and Thelonious monk are two of the influences that Weston’s piano playing style is based on. He began his career in the 1950s with Melba Liston, trombonist and arranger. He was described as America’s African Musical Ambassador. It’s all about Africa and her music. Randolph Edward Weston was an infant. He was born to Vivian Moore and Frank Weston in 1926. He was raised in Brooklyn by his father, who owned a restaurant. His mother was from Virginia, and his father was Jamaican-Panamanian. He was a staunch Garveyite who passed on the Pan-Africanist leader’s Afrocentric, independent values to his son. As a child, Weston took ballet lessons and studied classical piano. His father sent him to Boys High School in Bedford-Stuyvesant because of its reputation for high standards. Atwell gave him piano lessons, and unlike his previous piano teachers, Atwell was able to allow him to play music outside of classical music. After his service in the U.S. Army during World War II Weston opened a restaurant that was popular with jazz musicians. Count Basie and Nat King Cole were among his piano idols. Art Tatum, Duke Ellington, Wynton Kelly, and Nat King Cole are also among his favorites. The most significant impact was made by Thelonious Monk. Early career: 1940s-50s Weston started performing with Bullmoose Jackson and Frank Culley in the late 1940s. In 1953, he worked with Kenny Dorham, and then in 1954 with Cecil Payne. He formed his own trio and quartet, and released his first recording as a leader, Cole Porter in a Modern Mood, in 1954. In the 1955 Down Beat International Critics’ Poll, he was voted New Star pianist. There were several fine albums that followed, the best being Little Niles at the end of the decade. Melba Liston was able to arrange a sextet that played several Weston’s most memorable compositions, including the title track, “Earth Birth”, and “Babe’s Blues”. 1960s-70s Weston’s music featured African elements in the 1960s. This is evident on Uhuru Afrika (1960), with Langston Hughes as a participant. Highlife (full name: Music from New African Nations featuring Highlife) was recorded in 1963. It was two years after Weston had traveled to Africa as part of a U.S. Cultural Delegation to Lagos, Nigeria. He teamed up again with Melba Liston to arrange both of these albums. Uhuru Afrika (or Freedom Africa) is a landmark album. It celebrates the independence of several African countries. His band featured Booker Ervin, a tenor saxophonist, throughout these years. Weston recorded Bobby Benson’s “Niger Mambo” piece, which featured Caribbean and jazz elements in a Highlife style. He has recorded this number numerous times over his career. With a U.S. cultural delegation, Weston traveled through Africa in 1967. He made Morocco his last stop on the tour. There he settled and ran his African Rhythms Club in Tangier, which lasted five years from 1967 to 1972. In a 2015 interview, he stated that “we had everything in there from Chicago Blues singers to sings from the Congo .” The idea was to find African people and their music wherever they were. He produced Blue Moses, an album that was a huge success. On it, he plays an electric keyboard. In a July 2018 interview, he said that he and his son were still living in Tangier. He then brought him from Tangier to record the song. But Creed Taylor told me that his formula was electric piano. It was my only hit record, though I wasn’t happy about it. It was loved by everyone.” He was accompanied by Azzedin Weston, his son, on percussion. Later career Weston did not record for many years on small labels. His 1992 two-CD album, The Spirits of Our Ancestors, was also recorded. It featured arrangements by Melba Liston, his longtime collaborator. This album featured new and expanded versions of many of his most well-known pieces. It also featured an ensemble that included some African musicians and guests like Dizzy Gillespie or Pharoah Sands. Talib Kibwe, also known as T. K. Blue, was the music director. He continues to play that role until today. The Spirits of Our Ancestors was described as “one of most innovative explorations of ‘world-jazz’ ever recorded.” Weston recorded a number of albums, including solo, trio, small groups and collaborations with Gnawa musicians from Morocco. He is most well-known for “Hi-Fly”, a composition he said was inspired by the experience of being 6’8″ and looking down to the ground. “Little Niles”, which he named after his son, Azzedine, “African Sunrise”, Blue Moses”, and “The Healers”, are his most popular compositions. These songs have been frequently recorded by other well-known musicians. He performed with James Lewis, bassist, at the inauguration in Alexandria of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. He performed at Canterbury Cathedral with Gnawa musicians during the samwyear at the Archbishopof Canterbury’s invitation. In Japan, Weston played at the Kamigamo shrine in 2005. He attended a tribute at the Jazz Gallery in New York on June 21st 2009 for Kofi Ghanaba, the Ghanaian drummer. His composition “Love, The Mystery of …” Weston used for nearly 40 years as his main theme. Sunnyside’s 2013 album, The Roots of the Blues was released. It featured a duo performance with Billy Harper (tenor saxophonist). As part of the London Jazz Festival 2014, Weston performed a duo concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall with Harper on November 17, 2014. Kevin Le Gendre’s review stated that the musicians achieved “the kind advanced conversational intimacy only master player achieves.” Weston was the artist-in-residence of The New School in New York in 2015. He performed, lectured, and mentored students. Weston, who celebrated his 90th Birthday in 2016, performed at Carnegie Hall. He continues to travel and speak internationally. He was a performer at the Gnawa Festival, Morocco, in April 2016. [31] Also, he participated in the Spoleto Festival, Charleston, SC on June 2nd. He was the keynote speaker at July’s 32nd World Conference of International Society for Music Education, Glasgow. An African Nubian Suite (2017), a recording of a sold out concert at the Institute of African American Affairs of New York University, April 8, 2012, Easter Sunday. It features Cecil Bridgewater and Robert Trowers as well as T. K. Blue and Billy Harper. The Black Grooves reviewer described it as an “epic” work. It features music from the Nubian region of the Nile Delta to the holy city Touba in Senegal and China’s Shang Dynasty. The African Nubian Suite is Weston’s vehicle to remind us that we all came from Africa in these difficult times. Robin D.G. aptly stated it: “We all come from the same place – we all come from Africa.” Kelley writes in the liner notes that “There are no superior races or inferior races, hierarchies of cultures, and no barbarians at a gate.” Instead, Africa, with its music, land and spirituality, ties us all together as one planet. Randy Weston, who died in Brooklyn at the dawn of September 1, 2018, was buried. Source: Wikipedia
