African Rhythms

Randy Weston is an internationally renowned pianist, composer, and bandleader living in Brooklyn, New York. He has made more than forty albums and performed throughout the world. Weston has been inducted into the ASCAP Jazz Wall of Fame, designated a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts, and named Jazz Composer of the Year three times by DownBeat magazine. He is the recipient of many other honors and awards, including France's Order of Arts and Letters, the Black Star Award from the Arts Critics and Reviewers Association of Ghana, and a five-night tribute at the Montreal Jazz Festival. Willard Jenkins is an independent arts consultant, producer, educator, and print and broadcast journalist. His writing has been featured in JazzTimes, DownBeat, Jazz Report, Jazz Forum, All About Jazz, Jazzwise, and many other publications. He contributed two chapters to Ain't Nothing like the Real Thing: How the Apollo Theater Shaped American Entertainment.

Arranger's Preface / Willard Jenkins xi Acknowledgments xix Introduction 1 1. Origins 5 2. Growing Up in Brooklyn 18 3. The Scene Shifts to the Pacific 28 4. Postwar: Escaping the Panic 37 5. Post-Berkshires: Succumbing to the Irresistible Lure 55 6. Enter Melba Liston 70 7. Uhuru Afrika: Freedom Africa 82 8. Making the Pilgrimage 102 9. Touring the Motherland 114 10. Making a Home in Africa 135 11. Connecting with the Gnawa 171 12. Building a Life in Tangier: The African Rhythm Club 183 13. Festival Blues, Then Divine Intervention: Blue Moses 194 14. Post Morroco and the Ellington Connection 206 15. Compositions and Sessions 220 16. The African Rhythms Quintet 235 17. The African Queen 252 18. The Adventures of Randy Weston 262 19. Ancient Future 278 Conclusion: Randy Weston ... Philosophically Yours 299 Discography 305 Awards and Citations 323 Index 325

"Randy Weston is magical, spiritual, ebullient and generous soul who just happens to be one of the most original composers and pianists of the last 60 years. African Rhythms is his fascinating story in his own voice--a story that starts in Brooklyn and moves through the Berkshires, Africa and Europe before returning to Brooklyn. A wonderful read."--Michael Cuscuna "When Randy Weston plays a combination of strength and gentleness, virility and velvet emerges from the keys in an ebb and flow of sound seemingly as natural as the waves of the sea."--Langston Hughes, in the liner notes for Weston's album Uhuru Afrika "African Rhythms is unlike anything I've ever read. Randy Weston--pianist, composer, bandleader, activist, ambassador, visionary, griot--takes the reader on a most spectacular spiritual journey from Brooklyn to Africa, around the world and back again. He tells a story of this great music that has never been told in print: tracing its African roots and branches, acknowledging the ancestors who helped bring him to the music and draw the music from his soul, singing praise songs for those artistic and intellectual giants whose paths he crossed, from Langston Hughes to Melba Liston, Dizzy to Monk, Marshall Stearns to Cheikh Anta Diop. And in the process, Mr. Weston bares his soul, revealing a man overflowing with ancient wisdom, humility, respect for history, and a capacity for creating some of the most astoundingly beautiful music the modern world has ever experienced."--Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original "In his new autobiography, African Rhythms, Randy Weston recounts a life-changing epiphany. Working as a dishwasher at a Berkshires resort in the '50s, the aspiring jazz pianist stumbled upon a lecture by the musicologist Marshall Stearns, who traced the roots of jazz to West Africa... Not only did Weston get to know Stearns, but he also went on to become one of the most knowledgeable and well-known proponents of African jazz. New York Time Out "Randy Weston is a monumental figure in contemporary jazz, a man whose creativity remains undimmed at the age of 83. He is a living link with the golden era of the 1950s and 60s, a time during which trailblazing musicians and revolutionary thinkers wholly energised African-American arts and politics. As this absolutely fascinating biography reveals, Weston... Has lived a very full life that has seen him not only excel as a musician but also make hugely important cultural and political statements that had the intent and effect of uplifting blacks in America during a time of second class citizenship. A Recurrent theme in the text is thus Weston focus on concrete initiatives to improve civil rights... Essential reading for anybody interested in learning something of a great man as well as a great musician." - Kevin La Gendre, Jazzwise "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... Whether advocating black musicians' rights in the 1960s, recording with traditional African musicians in the 1990s or inaugurating the new Library of Alexandria in Egypt in the 2000s, the common thread which runs through African Rhythms is Weston's enduring love affair with African culture and its importance as the progenitor of jazz and pretty much everything else besides. This is an important addition to the jazz historiography and a long anticipated read for fans of this giant of African American music, aka jazz." - All About Jazz, October 2010