Weston, Randy

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Randy Weston

Pianist, composer

Jazz and world-music pianist/composer Randy Weston boasts a range of musical influences. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, he later lived in Africa for many years, both playing and studying African music. The result of his lifelong work and his far-reaching adventures is a beautiful and balanced hybrid of classic American jazz and ancient African rhythms and tonalities.

Weston grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, where his father, the owner of a soul food diner, emphasized to his son, “You are an African born in America.” The elder Weston laid down a strict rule for Randy: Practice the piano at home each day or feel the edge of a ruler on your knuckles. When the now six-foot-eight Weston was in his early teens he was already six-feet-two-inches tall and eager to play basketball, but his father ensured that he did not stray too far from his piano. Passing along his vast knowledge of calypso, jazz, and blues on to his son, Weston’s father frequently took him to see bandleader Duke Ellington at the Sonia Ballroom or Brooklyn Palace, as well as to Harlem to hear calypso. In addition, Weston’s mother, who was from Virginia, exposed her young son to spirituals.

While Weston was a youngster in Brooklyn in the 1930s and 1940s, musicians Miles Davis, Max Roach, and George Russell all lived in the borough at one time or another, and each had stopped into the elder Weston’s luncheonette for soul food. Weston felt steeped in the African American music community as a teenager; he especially made a point of seeing Coleman Hawkins perform whenever possible, and through Hawkins, was able to meet pianist Thelonious Monk. Weston spent many hours at home listening to Monk’s recordings.

At the age of 14, Weston was taught by drummer Al Harewood how to play a tune on the piano by ear; Weston was then able to imitate current releases by Ellington, Hawkins, and Count Basie. Weston used to go to the Atlantic Avenue section of Brooklyn to hear Arabic musicians play the oud, a type of lute. He told Down Beat’s Fred Bouchard, “We were searching for new sounds. We’d get into quarter and eighth tones. But here was Monk doing it, with spirit power, with magic!… For me it was pure African piano.” Besides Monk, Basie, Hawkins, and Ellington, jazz greats Nat King Cole and Art Tatum were also early influences for Weston.

Voted “new star pianist” in a 1955 Down Beat critics’ poll, Weston spent most of the 1950s playing in clubs around New York City with Cecil Payne and Kenny Dorham. He also toured colleges with historian Marshall Stearns, who lectured while Weston and a few other musicians performed African, calypso, Dixieland, and bebop music. Weston wrote a string of popular songs,

For the Record …

Born Randolph Edward Weston, April 6, 1926, in Brooklyn, NY; son of Frank Edward Weston (a restaurant owner);married; two children, including a son, Azzedin (formerly named Niles).

Pianist and composer. Released first album, Cole Porter in a Modern Mood, Riverside, 1954; has toured Africa and lived in Tangiers and Paris; appeared in television special Randy Weston: A Legend in His Own Time, WGBH-TV, Boston, MA, 1982; subject of jazz documentary films Jazz Entre Amigos, Randy in Tangiers, and African Rhythms.

Awards: Voted “new star pianist” in a Down Beat critic’s poll, 1955; voted “pianist most deserving wider recognition,” Down Beat, 1972; Grammy Award nomination for best jazz performance, 1971, for Tanjah; first prize from Academie du Jazz, France, 1976; Randy Weston Week established by Brooklyn Borough President’s Office and the Brooklyn Academy of Music, 1986; named “world’s best jazz pianist,” International Roots Festival, Lagos, Nigeria, 1988.

Addresses: Management —The Brad Simon Organization, Inc., 122 East 57th St., New York, NY 10022. Record company —Antilles, 400 Lafayette St., 5th Floor, New York, NY 11050.

including “Saucer Eyes,” “Pam’s Waltz,” “Little Niles,” and his best-known tune, “Hi-Fly,” which is about being six-foot-eight and looking at the ground. Among the 11 albums he released during the fifties were Cole Porter in a Modern Mood (1954), Randy Weston Trio (1955), Piano a La Mode (1957), and Little Niles (1958).

In 1960 Weston recorded Uhuru Africa with composer, arranger, and trombonist Melba Liston. Uhuru Africa featured narration by writer Langston Hughes and featured African traditional styles with a jazz orchestra. Weston told Bouchard in Down Beat, “I developed a lot playing with African drummers: Candido, Chief Bey, Big Black, Olatunji.”

Weston’s first encounter with African musicians was in Lagos, Nigeria. The rhythms impressed themselves on Weston’s psyche, and he eventually traveled and played in 18 African nations. In 1966 he visited 14 African countries while on a U.S. State Department tour. Finally deciding to settle in Tangiers, Morocco, he owned a nightclub there from 1968 until 1972. He then lived in Paris during the mid-to late 1970s, and his recordings— frequently licensed from European labels—appeared sporadically throughout the decade. He continued to perform in Africa, including at the 1977 Nigerian Festival, which attracted musicians from 60 different culture. The pianist told Down Beat’s Bouchard, “Africa is like a huge tree with branches to Brazil, to Cuba, and America. The approach to music is identical: rhythm, polyrhythm, call and response.”

The 1980s saw Weston receive recognition for his unique style of blending various cultures in his music. In 1982 the television special Randy Weston: A Legend in His Own Time was filmed for WGBH-TV in Boston. Randy Weston Week was declared in 1986 by the Brooklyn Borough President’s Office and the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1986, and two years later Weston won an award the World’s Best Jazz Pianist category at the International Roots Festival in Lagos, Nigeria. And, between 1987 and 1989, Weston was the subject of three documentary films: Jazz Entre Amigos, for Spanish television, Randy in Tangiers, for Spanish and French television, and African Rhythms, for WGBH-TV.

At the close of the 1980s Weston released a trilogy of compact discs (CDs) for the Antilles/Polygram label. Presenting the music of Ellington, Monk, and himself, Portraits was designed to boost Weston’s exposure and popularity in the United States. Weston’s sparse playing on the Portraits series is a departure from his earliest work, and Portraits can best be described as a Moroccan-Arabic-jazz fusion that features a tone ranging from ancient to futuristic.

The early to mid-1990s were busy years for Weston, whose appearances included a tour with a Moroccan Gnawa group, a troupe of dancers and musicians traveling from Morocco to the Niger region. In 1992 the pianist released another album, Spirits of Our Ancestors, underscoring the African link between forms of modern-day American music and featuring musicians Melba Liston, Pharoah Sanders, Dizzy Gillespie, and Dewey Redman. Volcano Blues was released a year later and was followed by Weston’s Monterey ‘66 in 1994. Two albums were cut in 1995, The Splendid Master Musicians of Morocco and Marrakesh: In the Cool of the Evening.

Weston’s music reflects his diverse paths in life and his desire to interweave the past with the future, and traditional with new sounds. Like Morocco and Africa itself, his music sounds both mysterious and beautifully simple. In an Earshot Jazz article, Gary Bannister gave Weston a well-deserved compliment when he referred to the multifaceted pianist as “Monk’s greatest heir.”

Selected discography

Cole Porter in a Modem Mood, Riverside, 1954.

Randy Weston Trio, Riverside, 1955.

Piano a la Mode, Jubilee, 1957.

Little Niles, United Artists, 1958.

Uhuru Africa, Roulette, 1960.

Music of the New African Nations, Colpix, 1963.

Randy, Bakton, 1964.

African Rhythms, Polydor, 1969.

Blue Moses, CTl 1972.

Big Band Tanjah, Polydor, 1973.

Bantu, Roulette, 1976.

Randy Weston Live at the Five Spot, Blue Note, 1976.

Berkshire Blues, Arista, 1977.

The Healers, Cora, 1980.

Blue, Arch, 1984.

The Healers, with Saxophonist David Murray, Black Saint, 1987.

Portraits of Ellington, Polygram, 1990.

Portraits of Monk, Polygram, 1990.

Self Portraits, Polygram, 1990.

Spirits of Our Ancestors, Antilles, 1992.

Volcano Blues, Antilles, 1993.

Monterey ‘66, Antilles, 1994.

The Splendid Master Musicians of Morocco, Antilles, 1995. Marrakesh: In the Cool of the Evening, Antilles, 1995.

Weston also wrote film scores for The Africans and The African Queens, both 1981, and Portrait of Billie Holiday and African Sunrise, both 1985.