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A Fireside Chat with Randy Weston
by AAJ Staff
In my youth, a television news magazine aired a feature on how the map of the world we, as kids, were taught in school was in fact, biased. In reality, Europe and America are not nearly as vast as they seem in the Thomas Guide and Africa and Asia, not nearly as insignificant. South Africa, for instance, is nearly twice the size of Texas and has a stock exchange that is among the largest in the world. But South Africa, ...
Continue ReadingRandy Weston: African Rhythms
by AAJ Staff
While most talented jazz players continue to evolve, very few enter into a revolution. That's what happened four decades ago with Randy Weston. Weston (b. 1926) made a series of recordings in the '50s, including a streak of early bop records on Riverside. His early association with Thelonious Monk obviously shaped his musical vocabulary, as did his tenure with Cecil Payne and Kenny Dorham. But it was in the next decade that Weston developed one of the most distinctive voices ...
Continue ReadingRandy Weston: Ancient Future
by AAJ Staff
Randy Weston is a Brooklyn born pianist, with Caribbean and African influences, as suits this scholar with earthy roots. His earliest recordings on Riverside date from the mid-'50s, and his fingers have since taken him around the world. He's appeared on as many labels as one can label the man himself, yet there is a constant: a continual searching for depth. Although Weston has used every grouping from trio to jazz orchestra (arranged by the late Melba Liston) to traditional ...
Continue ReadingRandy Weston: Solo, Duo & Trio
by Derek Taylor
Randy Weston continues to be a vibrant and creative force in jazz, so much so that it’s sometimes easy to forget that he’s been at it for over five decades. While his early work often isn’t as readily available as the material he’s done more recently much of it slowly making it back into print. This disc from Prestige combines some of Weston’s first recordings into a single, convenient package and well worth investigating. While there is audible tape hiss ...
Continue ReadingT.K. Blue: Another Blue
by Jack Bowers
Here’s a generous helping of flavorsome post–bop Jazz deliciously home–cooked by T. K. Blue (also known as Talib Kibwe, and as a conspicuously talented woodwind player, often with Randy Weston’s Spirit of Life Orchestra) and his enterprising companions. Group sizes range from duo to sextet with Blue (alto) and Weston duetting wonderfully on Dizzy’s “Night in Tunisia” and trumpet master Eddie Henderson augmenting Blue’s quartet on the impulsive finale, Miles Davis’ “Solar.” Blue plays alto on seven tracks, soprano on ...
Continue ReadingT.K. Blue: Another Blue
by Mark Corroto
For the past ten years T. K. Blue, also known as Talib Kibwe, has been sideman extrodinaire for Randy Weston’s Spirit of Life Orchestra. Like Billy Pierce to Tony Williams, or Paul Desmond to Dave Brubeck, Blue added depth and soul to the group without stepping out into the limelight. Born in New York to a Trinidadian mother and a Jamaican father, the saxophonist who doubles on flute graduated from NYU and New York’s Jazzmobile to play with Abdullah Ibrahim ...
Continue ReadingRandy Weston: Khepera
by Jim Santella
Like Ellington and Monk together, pianist Randy Weston blends beautiful harmony with plenty of surprises. His impressionistic album comes after intensive studies of ancient rhythms from around the world. Gathering from the spiritual or ritualistic to enjoyable jazz grooves, Weston surrounds traditional Chinese and African scenes with familiar images. His band is such that it can sound spare or huge. On “Portrait of Cheikh Anta Diop," the leader gets everyone involved in a big band affair with unusual intensity. Weston ...
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