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Weston Culture

By Patrick Burnette

Inspired by Randy Weston's passing, Mike and Pat explore four pivotal albums from the pianist/composer's long career, taking in works from 1960 to 2003. Weston's collaboration with trombonist/arranger Melba Liston is discussed in some depth, as her contributions were crucial to some of his greatest recordings. Pat laments not including Weston's album Highlife from 1963, which he says is his favorite of Weston's collaborations with Liston, while Mike explains the religious origins of “Blue Moses." Playlist Discussion of Randy Weston's ...

Randy Weston Tribute & New Releases

By Ludovico Granvassu

Another master has left us. Randy Weston passed away on Sept. 1st at the venerable age of 92. This week we celebrate the music of an artist that consciously built a bridge between jazz and African musical traditions and, in doing so, strongly contributed to the awareness of the African roots of jazz music. This episode will then feature some interesting new releases by Phronesis, Stefon Harris, Stephane Spira, Fred Hersch and others. Happy listening! ...

Randy Weston: The Spirit of Our Ancestors

By Ludovico Granvassu

To commemorate the Randy Weston, we've republished this 1999 interview that traces his life and career, from his birth in Brooklyn to the years spent in Africa, from his admiration for Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington to his collaboration with Melba Liston. Every year, Harvard's Department of Music devotes part of its academic year to the study of great jazz masters. Thanks to this program, musicians such as Bill Evans, Gerry Mulligan, Lester Bowie, Steve Lacy, Illinois ...

Randy Weston Live In Padua, 1975

By Centro d'Arte Padova

Randy Weston: Music of The Earth

By R.J. DeLuke

Pianist Randy Weston has long been known to be a student of his African heritage and proud of it. Born in Brooklyn, he has lived in Africa, been involved with musicians there--he has been involved with the entirety of its culture. An expert? “I've lived there for years, man, and I know nothing," he says with a bold, generous laugh that speckles many of his comments. “I'm no expert on anything because you're dealing with the magic ...

Randy Weston: Blue Moses

By Eugene Holley, Jr.

Brooklyn-born, six-foot-seven octogenarian pianist/composer Randy Weston has literally been a larger-than-life jazz force for six decades: his percussive pianism was forged from a distinguished keyboard continuum, ranging from Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk to John Lewis; his “Little Niles" and “Hi-Fly" are well-worn jazz standards; and the pianist may well be the greatest exponent of the African roots of America's classical music. Weston lived in Morocco in the 1960s and '70s, opened a jazz club there, and was virtually a ...

Randy Weston: Blue Moses

By Chris May

Randy WestonBlue MosesCTI Masterworks2011 (1972) Sony's program of reissues from CTI--the label set up by producer Creed Taylor in the late 1960s, post Impulse!, which he also founded, and post Verve, where he had moved on leaving Impulse!--continues with one of the brightest jewels in the CTI vaults. Like the sixteen discs which Sony have already reissued, pianist and composer Randy Weston's Blue Moses has not previously been ...

Randy Weston: African Stories, African Rhythms

By Ian Patterson

In over 60 years as a leader, pianist Randy Weston has achieved an incredible amount. He has recorded nearly 50 albums and has been hailed in the process as the natural heir to Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk. Three times he has been voted Downbeat's composer of the year, and his compositions have been recorded by the likes of Ahmad Jamal, Cannonball Adderley, Roland Kirk, Dexter Gordon, Abbey Lincoln, Abdullah Ibrahim and Jimmy Heath amongst others. In 2001, his significance ...

The Autobiography of Randy Weston: African Rhythms

By Ian Patterson

The Autobiography of Randy Weston: African RhythmsRandy Weston / Willard JenkinsHardcover; 344 pagesISBN: 978-0-8223-4784-2Duke University Press2010 It's hard to think of another jazz musician who has promoted the African roots of jazz with quite the missionary zeal of pianist Randy Weston. Weston's African consciousness was awakened by his father, who taught his son that he was an African in Brooklyn. As this autobiography demonstrates, Weston's musical journey--indeed ...

The Randy Weston African Rhythms Trio at Birdland

By Martin Longley

The Randy Weston African Rhythms Trio Birdland New York, New York October 3, 2007

The extremely tall Weston hunkers over his dwarfed piano, looking years younger than his eight decades ought to allow. He's in relaxed mode for this intimate late-night gathering on the opening night of his residency. The African experience has been central to the Brooklynite Weston's musical life from a very early point, even though it took him a while ...

Randy Weston & His African Rhythms Trio: Zep Tepi

By Bill Bennett

Randy Weston returns to the trio format for the first time in over thirty years with Zep Tepi. Poised to enter his eighth decade on the planet, Weston is an elder in every sense of the term. His distinctively percussive attack, yard-wide chords, criss-crossing rhythms and idiosyncratic melodies remain sui generis. Both literally (he's 6'9") and figuratively, Weston is a giant of the music.

He pays tribute to his friend and mentor Thelonious Monk on “Ballad for T," a reflective ...

Randy Weston's African Rhythms Trio: Zep Tepi

By Joel Roberts

There's no better argument for the notion that jazz keeps you young than Randy Weston. Appearing last month at the Blue Note in support of Zep Tepi, the Brooklyn-born Weston showed that at eighty he remains one of the most vital and creative forces in jazz, as well as one of its most charismatic figures. Zep Tepi is a trio effort that revisits some of Weston's most popular and enduring compositions. While the fare is well known--including ...