Randy Weston

Randy Weston (born April 6, 1926, in Brooklyn, New York) is an American jazz pianist and composer of Jamaican parentage. He was described by Marian McPartland as "one of the world's great visionary pianists and composers".

Weston's piano style owes much to Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk (he has paid direct tribute to both on the "portraits" albums), but it is highly distinctive in its qualities: percussive, highly rhythmic, capable of producing a wide variety of moods.

Biography

Early life

Weston was raised in Brooklyn, where his father Frank owned a restaurant. Weston studied classical piano as a child and he took dance lessons as well. He graduated from Boys High School in Bedford-Stuyvesant. His father chose for him to attend there because it had a reputation of high standards. He took piano lessons from Professor Atwell, because unlike his former piano teachers, Professor Atwell allowed him to play songs outside of the classical music repertoire.

After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, Weston ran a restaurant that was frequented by many of the leading bebop musicians. Among his piano heroes are Count Basie, Nat King Cole, Art Tatum and Duke Ellington (and Wynton Kelly was a cousin), but it was Thelonious Monk who had the greatest impact.

Weston

Weston may refer to:

Places

Australia

Canada

United Kingdom

Randy

Randy is both a given name, and a pet name in the English language, popular in North America. It is primarily a masculine name. It was originally derived from the names Randall, Randolf, Randolph, Bertrand and also Andrew. Randi is approximately the feminine equivalent of the name Randy.

Men known as Randy

Billy Harper

Billy Harper (born January 17, 1943, in Houston, Texas) is an American jazz saxophonist, "one of a generation of Coltrane-influenced tenor saxophonists" with a distinctively stern, hard-as-nails sound on his instrument.

Biography

In 1965 Harper earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of North Texas.

Harper has played with some of jazz's greatest drummers; he served with Art Blakey's Messengers for two years (1968–70); he played very briefly with Elvin Jones (1970), he played with the Thad Jones/ Mel Lewis Orchestra in the 1970s, and was a member of Max Roach's band in the late 1970s. He has also been a frequent member of Randy Weston's ensembles, and in 2013 they recorded their first album as a duo, entitled The Roots of the Blues. Harper performed on Gil Evans' 1973 album Svengali, and contributed two of the most-performed tunes in the band's repertoire: "Priestess" and "Thoroughbred".

Harper's 1973 album Capra Black "remains one of the seminal recordings of jazz's black consciousness movement--a profoundly spiritual effort that channels both the intellectual complexity of the avant garde as well as the emotional potency of gospel". The Italian jazz label Black Saint was launched with Harper's 1975 album Black Saint. His later releases have mostly been on SteepleChase and Evidence.

African Cookbook

African Cookbook is an album by Randy Weston's African Rhythms recorded in 1969 in Paris and originally released on the French Polydor label.

Track listing

All compositions by Randy Weston except as indicated

Personnel

References