Randy
Weston
Since I was on
vacation last week and didn't have to get up early, I decided to treat myself
to some live music at one of NYC's pricier nightclubs. Like Glen Gould, I
generally prefer recordings to live performances since there are fewer
distractions. Now if I could only play the piano like he did...
I have been
listening to Randy Weston's African influenced jazz for the better part of 40
years but I have never heard him perform in person. A Village Voice publicity
blurb said:
"His African
Rhythms Quintet is a lean, undulating, aggressive, lyrical joy of a band.
Although Weston's '50s songs are no longer covered as widely as they used to
be--and will be again--they have proven durable in their humor, rhythm, and
intricate melodic coils, and Weston finds ways to refurbish them that confirms
the Moroccan-Brooklyn connection that defines his music."
As Randy Weston
strode into the Iridium five minutes before the set, he made a vivid impression
at 6'6" and dressed in a flowing orange African dashiki. At the age of 73,
he seems to be in great shape physically and might even be taken for a former
professional athlete. He told a Boston Globe reporter last year, "I liked
to shoot baskets but I didn't like to run. And musicians were so important in
the black community when I was young. We copied how they dressed. If you were a
musician in the black community, you didn't go out to buy cigarettes unless you
were immaculate."
His physical
power also seems to affect the way he plays the piano, his huge hands making an
almost percussive use of the keyboards as was the case of his major influence,
Thelonious Monk. What I heard, however, was not only the inflections of Monk
but of the pianist who influenced both of them and who doesn't get near as much
credit as an innovator as he deserves, namely Duke Ellington. When you listen
to Ellington in small group settings, where his piano solos are given freer
rein than in big band arrangements, you will hear the same elements that you
find in Monk, Weston and other great "two hand" pianists. These
include a rolling bass line, liberal use of dissonances and tone clusters
punctuated by dramatic pauses. You can hear Ellington at his best in the
recording "Money Jungle", where he is joined by bassist Charlie
Mingus and drummer Max Roach.
With his latest
band, Weston blends his Monk-like piano style with a very unusual rhythm
section. Instead of using a conventional drum set, he relies on a percussionist
named Neil Clarke who performs on conga and hand cymbals. So instead of the
typical 4/4 beat that typifies modern jazz performance, you get a polyrhythmic
foundation that complements the African-influenced harmonies of Weston's
compositions. The bassist Alex Blake is also extremely unconventional, using a
combination of strumming, slapping and plucking often accompanied with a kind
of scat singing reminiscent of Slam Stewart from an earlier generation. The
horn player (flute, alto and soprano sax) is Talib Kibwe, who reminds me a lot
of Arthur Blythe and of Yusef Lateef, also from an earlier generation.
It is African
influences that makes Weston's music special. Unlike American jazz standards,
Weston's tunes dispense with the typical architecture of
theme-variation-resolution. When you hear most classic jazz compositions, you
are geared to expect a certain tripartite form that is almost as much of a
convention as a 4-movement symphony. For example, in something like the Miles
Davis performances of "My Funny Valentine", you are never that far
away from the underlying song structure. If you didn't hear a restatement of
the tune at the end of the performance, you'd feel cheated.
In a Weston
composition, you are much less aware of a beginning, middle or end. The
performance is much more like African popular or folk music which does not
follow a linear path. Instead, after a short statement of the theme, you are
treated to much more interplay than is normal in a standard jazz performance.
It is also much more difficult to sense when the "climax" of a piece
is nearing. One can imagine Weston being influenced by the performances of
dervishes in Morocco where he lived for many years or by other forms of African
music that are ritualistic, nonlinear and ecstatic in nature.
Weston moved to
Morocco in 1967, where he opened a nightclub and studied with the master
musicians of the Gnawa, a sub-Saharan group of people first brought to Morocco
as slaves. By combining the music of tropical Africa and desert Africa, they
created a unique sound that Weston finally documented on his 1994 album,
"The Splendid Master Gnawa Musicians of Morocco" (Verve/Antilles).
His set at the Iridium included a piece influenced by the Gnawa that was
absolutely riveting. It reminded me a bit of John Coltrane's classic
"Africa Brass", but much tighter and much more authentic.
Like many
African-Americans in New York City and other cosmopolitan centers, Weston
became a Pan-Africanist prior to the black nationalist awakening of the 1960s.
He told the Boston Globe, "My father, Frank Edward Weston, is from very
proud people, and he wanted to instill that pride in me. He loved Africa, and
told me as a little boy that I had to know my ancestral home. He insisted on
two things - that I study African history from before the continent was
invaded, and learn to play the piano. Mom gave me the church and the blues. It
was a wonderful foundation."
Weston
collaborated for many years with Melba Liston, a composer and trombone player
who died last year. Liston was one of the great female instrumentalists of the
20th century. Shortly before her death, Weston described their first encounter:
"I was listening to Dizzy's band at Birdland and saw this beautiful woman
playing the trombone. It was Melba Liston, featured on her own arrangement of
'My Reverie.' When I introduced myself and we shook hands, it was like
electricity. We first worked together in 1958, when she arranged seven of my
children's waltzes for the album 'Little Niles,' and we're still working
together."
Liston
participated in "Uhuru Afrika," Weston's classic 1960 recording that
celebrated the continent's political liberation. "People thought we were
crazy radicals when we did that album but look at the popularity of African and
Asian music now." He also collaborated with Langston Hughes who
contributed a poem to 'Uhuru Afrika,' and was on Weston's first trip to Africa
the following year. Langston's will specified that Weston play at his funeral,
and that the last piece had to be Duke Ellington's "Do Nothin' Till You
Hear From Me."
Weston's 1961
trip to Nigeria reinforced the Pan-Africanism that his father instilled in him.
"I knew I was back home in the land of my ancestors. I saw the same faces
as in Harlem and Brooklyn, and the music had the same spiritual character. On
that first trip we had traditional African dancers on the same stage with
dancers from the Savoy Ballroom, and we could see that we hadn't changed that
much. Our music was African music."
If you get a
chance to hear Randy Weston in person, don't miss it. Also highly recommended
is his 1995 recording "Earth Birth" (Verve/Gitanes), with
arrangements by Melba Liston. Weston is joined by bassist Christian McBride and
the great drummer Billy Higgins on this recording, with a string orchestra
conducted by Paul West. It includes classic Weston tunes, such as "Little
Niles" and "Hi-Fly".