A Gathering of African Rhythms

It probably couldn't be anymore fitting that the day I start my new job working for SFJAZZ, would be the same day that one of my favorite jazz artists in Randy Weston will be performing here in San Francisco. Tonight at the San Francisco Yoshi's, the legendary jazz pianist will be putting on a solo performance as well as discussing both his new album The Storyteller and his recently released autobiography African Rhythms. Last summer when I saw him perform during the Stanford Jazz Festival, I was absolutely blown away not just by the incredible performance that both he and the African Rhythms trio put on that night, but also by the priceless insight into African culture and jazz music that he shared with the audience. As I continue to read through his autobiography, I continue to be fascinated by this musicians life that took him from hanging out with jazz giants like Thelonious Monk and Max Roach to moving to Africa, playing occasionally with Fela Kuti and opening up a night club in Morocco. I've always enjoyed how Weston has continued to bring both jazz and African music together, focusing on the music's traditional roots and culture. Tonight, I look forward to opening my mind and taking in all the invaluable wisdom that this jazz legend will certainly share.

Randy Weston's African Rhythms - The Gathering



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African Rhythms

Well, I'm back from my wonderful and much needed vacation in Hawaii. As you might imagine, I got a lot of sun and a lot of relaxation. Another thing that I did while I was in Maui was start reading the new autobiography of Randy Weston titled African Rhythms: The Autobiography of Randy Weston. I've only finished eight chapters of the nineteen chapter book, however I would already highly recommend this book for anyone that has a fascination for African music, culture, and of course the life of Randy Weston. In this autobiography, Randy does a great job of not only highlighting his music career, but also discussing the social and cultural barriers he had to constantly deal with, being an African-American jazz musician growing up in Brooklyn. Throughout the book, Randy talks about his strong spiritual and music connection to Africa and how it was the foundation for most of his compositions. He also talks about some of the jazz artists that helped influence and shape his music like Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Coleman Hawkins as well as the outspoken novelist and poet Langston Hughes. With each page, I feel like I'm understanding more and more the life, the music, and the person that is the legendary jazz giant Randy Weston. I've been a fan of Randy's compositions for as long as I've enjoyed jazz music. It might be safe to say that his music, along with Dizzy Gillespie's music, is what got me interested into jazz in the first place. Since I've been spending a lot of time reading this fascinating book, I thought I would share another one of my favorite compositions by Randy Weston in "The Memory Of". This composition was featured on Randy's 1973 album Tanjah. Like many of Randy's records, this album has an overall funky African groove with an all-star rhythm section that includes the legendary Cuban percussionist Candido on congas. Overall, it's a great track from an artist that was always seeking the ancient African spirit within. Enjoy!

Randy Weston - In Memory Of

Portrait of Randy Weston

Finishing up the second part of this week's feature on Randy Weston, I thought I would post a more recent version of "Portrait of Frank Edward Weston" that Weston and his African Rhythms Trio recorded for an album titled Zep Tepi that was unfortunately only release in CD format. Another version of the track was released on vinyl as part of the excellent compilation series titled Wildflowers: The New York Loft Jazz Sessions. One of the many fascinating things I came across while researching Weston's music career was that after the pianist's 1967 tour of Africa, he decided to establish a jazz nightclub in Morocco called the African Rhythms Club. Weston ran the nightclub for six years from 1967 to 1972 while studying African music. His time running the nightclub and studying in Morocco truly had a huge influence on his own music going forward and has since helped lead him into becoming one of the pioneers of African jazz music. I'm sure when he performs this Saturday night at Stanford University as part of the Stanford Jazz Festival, it will almost be worth taking notes. I usually don't do two-part features on this site, however I thought I would make an exception because I thought it was important to pay tribute to a musician who has been one of the most pivotal players in the history of African jazz. I'm very much looking forward to Saturday night's performance, as it will be such an invaluable experience to have a legend like Randy Weston performing before me. Enjoy your weekend!

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Randy Weston - Portrait of Frank Edward Weston

Randy Weston's African Cookbook

One of my favorite jazz musicians of all-time is pianist Randy Weston. Throughout his brilliant and long career the Brooklyn born native has written and performed some of the world's finest African-influenced jazz compositions of the past century. His compositions often blend together traditional jazz music with African rhythms and grooves to produce a compelling and captivating signature sound. His music and recordings were partly responsible for turning me on to jazz, as his music tends to crossover nicely with other forms of African music that I enjoy like Afrobeat and Afro funk. Therefore you can imagine how excited I was when I learned that the acclaimed jazz musician, along side his African Rhythms Trio, would be performing at this year's Stanford Jazz Festival. The performance will take place this Saturday night (June 26th) inside the Dinkelspiel Auditorium at the Stanford University. To help shed some light on this exciting upcoming performance I thought I would do a two-part post leading up to Saturday night's performance and share a couple of my favorite tracks by this incredible jazz artist.

One of my favorite compositions by Randy Weston has to be the title track from his 1972 album African Cookbook. This jazz piece, which is slightly over twelve minutes in length, consists of Weston's smooth piano playing backed by some funky percussion rhythms that help define the compositions overall groove. The track is rounded out nicely with Booker Ervin on the saxophone(tenor) and Ray Copeland on trumpet. For those who have never heard Weston before, or are less familiar to jazz music in general, I find that African Cookbook is a great starting point, especially for those, like myself, that tend to enjoy the more funkier side of music. Overall, this will probably be just one of the many great jazz compositions that Weston and his African Rhythms Trio perform during his much-anticipated Saturday night set. Overall, it's not everyday that one of the most influential musicians of the last century, like Randy Weston perform in the city where you live, therefore if you like in the bay area I highly recommend checking out this performance.

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Randy Weston - African Cookbook