Randy Weston — R.I.P.

[Ron Thorne]

Randy Weston, Pianist Who Traced Roots of Jazz to Africa, Dies at 92


Randy Weston performing in 1963. His playing and composing emphasized the African roots of jazz.CreditCreditChuck Stewart/Mosaic Records

By Giovanni Russonello

Sept. 1, 2018

Randy Weston, an esteemed pianist whose music and scholarship advanced the argument — now broadly accepted — that jazz is, at its core, an African music, died on Saturday at his home in Brooklyn. He was 92.

His death was confirmed by his lawyer, Gail Boyd.

On his earliest recordings, in the mid-1950s for the Riverside label, Mr. Weston almost fit the profile of a standard bebop musician: He recorded jazz standards and galloping original tunes in a typical small-group format. But his sharply cut harmonies and intense, gnarled rhythms conveyed a manifestly Afrocentric sensibility, one that was slightly more barbed and rugged than the popular hard-bop sound of the day.

Early on, he exhibited a distinctive voice as a composer. “Hi-Fly,” which he first released in 1958 on the LP “New Faces at Newport,” became a standard. And he eventually distinguished himself as a solo pianist, reflecting the influence of his main idol, Thelonious Monk.

But more than Monk, Mr. Weston liked constantly to reshape his cadences, rarely lingering on a steady pulse.

[Jazzooo]

92! Good to see him hang on that long. Hope he enjoyed the ride. RIP sir.

[BeBop]

The final of a half-dozen times I had the pleasure, I heard Randy Weston as part of the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival at Marcus Garvey Park, late August 2016. He was ninety. Inspired and inspiring, still. Thanks.