African Rhythms: The Autobiography of Randy Weston

To purchase: http://tinyurl.com/randyweston Composed by Randy Weston, arranged by Willard Jenkins.

The pianist, composer, and bandleader Randy Weston is one of the world's most influential jazz musicians and a remarkable storyteller whose career has spanned five continents and more than six decades.

Packed with fascinating anecdotes, African Rhythms is Weston's life story, as told by him to the distinguished music journalist Willard Jenkins. It encompasses Weston's childhood in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, where his parents and other members of their generation imbued him with pride in his African heritage, and his introduction to jazz and early years as a musician in the artistic ferment of mid-twentieth-century New York.

His music has taken him around the world, where he has performed in eighteen African countries, in Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines in Japan, and for the Princess of Morocco, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the grand opening of a new library in Alexandria, Egypt. Africa is at the core of Weston's music and spirituality. He has traversed the continent on a continuous quest to learn about its musical traditions, produced its first major jazz festival, and lived for years in Morocco, where he opened a popular jazz club, The African Rhythms Club, in Tangier.

Weston's narrative is replete with tales of the people he has met and befriended, and with whom he has worked. He describes his unique partnerships with Langston Hughes, the musician and arranger Melba Liston, and the jazz scholar Marshall Stearns, as well as his friendships and collaborations with Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins, Thelonious Monk, Billy Strayhorn, Max Roach, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, the Cuban percussionist Candido Camero, the Ghanian musicians Kofi Gnaba and Kwabena Nketia, the Gnawa musicians of Morocco, the novelist Paul Bowles, the photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, and many other artists.

A full discography of Weston's recordings includes song titles and the names of all of the musicians who performed on the records. With African Rhythms, an international jazz virtuoso creates cultural history again.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Randy
• Weston
• Willard
• Jenkins
• African
• rhythm
• piano
• jazz
• brooklyn
• buddhist
• morocco
• melba
• liston
• duke
• ellington
• dizzy
• gillespie
• henri
• car\tier-bresson

[beatles713]

what is the song from 00.45 - 01.25 ?

[JazzVideoGuy]

@beatles713 Ifrane - Blue Moses - Randy Weston - CTI Records

[funkfanzzify]

thanks, I am digging in the magic of music of Africa, the beat/the melody and the background of blues/jazz etc.

[molinmusic]

Thank you SO much for sharing this! Thanks to MELBA LISTON for his advanced arrangements which hit the top Jazz Charts in HISTORY. Concerned for HERSTORY, I give personal thanks and praises for adding the greatest arranger of ALL time and MY mentor, MELBA LISTON'S NAME, blessed LOVE! Thanks so much Randy Weston for taking the time to write YOUR story, you are a mentor for all, we all come from TANZANIA, we are from ONE WHOLE HOMO ERECTUS MOTHER, give thanks for our WOMBYN in MUSIC.

[georgiakyle]

Thank you so much for this! This footage is awesome! How about the young Benny Powell?

[underyourskindvd]

Nice piece.

[malachi90]

thank you for posting this promotion for Randy's new book. He has been one of my favorite composer/pianists for many years.

[larryknight49]

I did not know of Randy Weston. I am looking forward to the rest of my life listening to his music. Thanks for posting this video.

[mermaid7857]

nice video - informative and inspiring! Randy Weston is such a gem , one of Brooklyn's (and the world's) greats! the book is a needed and long overdue project! can't wait to read it!!!!

[7notemode]

Love! Randy Weston!!