PITTSFIELD, Massachusetts, April 15, 2010 Berkshires Jazz, Inc., today announced that pianist/composer Randy Weston will appear in a special concert in Pittsfield on Saturday, May 29 at The Berkshire Museum. After nearly a 10-year absence, the NEA Jazz Master returns to the place of his discovery, The Berkshires, for a career retrospective that will include an open panel discussion and a concert featuring his African Rhythms Duo, with Alex Blake on bass.
Weston's story is the stuff of legend. Employed as a young cook in Lenox, Massachusetts, he would often walk over to the renowned jazz resort/retreat called Music Inn, where he would play the piano after hours. Proprietress Stephanie Barber, who hired him as a dishwasher, discovered his pianistic skills and encouraged the young Brooklynite to pursue a career in music. And, pursue he did. With a jazz resume that spans some 55 years, Weston has dozens of recordings and compositions to his name.
As a budding professional jazz artist, and later as an accomplished world traveler and performer, Weston frequently stayed in the Berkshires for rest and creative inspiration. Acknowledging The Berkshires' special place in his heart, his most famous composition, one that has become a jazz standard, is called Berkshire Blues. His compositions have been recorded by many renowned pianists, from Ahmad Jamal to George Shearing, and many more.
“Weston has the biggest sound of any jazz pianist since Ellington and Monk, as well as the richest most inventive beat," states jazz critic Stanley Crouch. “But his art is more than projection and time; it's the result of a studious and inspired intelligence...an intelligence that is creating a fresh synthesis of African elements with jazz technique".
Weston's awards and distinctions are many, and were capped in 2001 with his designation as Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2006, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Music from Brooklyn College, and in 2009 he was named to the ASCAP Jazz Wall of Fame. His autobiography will be published this September by Duke University Press.
On the afternoon of the concert, he will “meet the press" in a media panel chaired by the notable jazz writer Willard Jenkins, and including Milton Bass, the Berkshire Eagle writer who wrote the first review of a Randy Weston concert; Seth Rogovoy, editor of the award-winning Berkshire Living magazine; and Tom Reney, jazz programmer at western New England's principal jazz station, WFCR-FM. The panel is free, open to the public, and will be recorded for later broadcast.
The evening concert starts at 8pm. Ticket prices are $20 in advance, $25 at the door, and telephone orders are now being taken at the Berkshire Museum box office, 413-443-7171, ext. 10.
For program updates, box office, and other information, visit BerkshiresJazz.org This concert is presented with the support of the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, The High Meadow Foundation, and the Greylock Federal Credit Union.
Berkshires Jazz, Inc. is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization, established in 2009 to present jazz events and promote jazz education throughout Berkshire County in western Massachusetts. The organization is also the sponsor of the Pittsfield CityJazz Festival.
For more information contact Ed Bride Associates.
