In the history of jazz, no American musician’s career has been more interconnected with the continent of Africa than that of the great pianist and composer Randy Weston. Weston, whose centennial we celebrated on April 6, 2026, was a giant, not only as a creative and spiritual force, but standing six feet, seven inches, an imposing figure in the venues at which he performed throughout the world.
On Sunday, May 3 at 3 p.m., saxophonist/flutist/composer/arranger/educator T.K. Blue (Talib Kibwe), photo above, will lead a quartet paying tribute to Weston at the New Jersey Jazz Society’s Jersey Jazz LIVE! concert at the Madison (NJ) Community Arts Center. Blue was a member of Weston’s African Rhythms Quintet for 38 years. Joining him at this event will be pianist Orrin Evans, bassist Santi Dibriano, and drummer George Coleman, Jr. Prior to the concert, Blue will be interviewed by me.
Interestingly, Weston, photo below, didn’t consider himself primarily a musician. In his own words, “I come to be a storyteller; I’m not a jazz musician. I’m really a storyteller through music and I’ve had some amazing and unique experiences…God is the real musician. I’m an instrument, and the piano is another instrument. Africa taught me that” (African Rhythms: The Autobiography of Randy Weston by Randy Weston & Willard Jenkins, Duke University Press: 2010).
Influenced by both Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington, Weston created a significant legacy throughout a 70-year career, involving 150 compositions, many of them waltzes such as the haunting “Little Niles”; and 50 albums as a leader on record labels both foreign and domestic including his most commercially successful effort Blue Moses for the CTI label in 1972. Although emerging during the hard bop period of the 1950s, his creative work, starting in the 1960s, incorporated the music and spiritual content of Africa, especially the Gnawa people of Morocco with whom he developed an enduring bond.
An important Weston collaborator was the arranger and trombonist Melba Liston (1926-1999) with whom the pianist had a strong personal relationship as well as a musical one. Between 1958 and 1995, Liston penned arrangements for eight of Weston’s albums including the innovative Uhuru Afrika (Roulette Records, 1960), Weston’s first overt effort to pay tribute to his African heritage. The ensemble was an all-star big band augmented by the presence of poet Langston Hughes, baritone Brock Peters, soprano Martha Flowers, and Nigerian percussionist Babatunde Olatunji. Weston’s goal is his own words: “I wanted to create a large-scale suite to illustrate that the African people are a global people and that what we do and who we are comes from our collective experience, from our African cultural memory.” The album was sufficiently controversial to be banned in apartheid South Africa.
Weston was the recipient of many awards and honors including the French Order of Arts and Letters (1997), NEA Jazz Master (2001), Honorary Doctor of Music from Brooklyn College (2003), Guggenheim Fellowship (2011) and Doris Duke Artist Award (2014). He died in Brooklyn, NY, in 2018, at the age of 92.
T.K. Blue is at the peak of his creative output. His artistry is found on more than 85 recordings, and he has performed with a long list of great international artists. In addition to Weston, they include: pianist/composer Abdullah Ibrahim, bassist Sam Rivers, the Spirit of Life Ensemble, and poet/activist Jayne Cortez. He garnered tremendous experience in pedagogy teaching Pre-K through 12 in the Roosevelt, L.I., school district. He also taught in an adjunct capacity for several years at Suffolk Community College and Montclair State University. Blue was eventually hired as a fulltime professor by Long Island University as the Director of Jazz Studies from 2007 to 2014. He has issued 15 CDs under his own leadership, the most recent of which is Planet Bluu on the Jaja Records label (2024).-NOAL COHEN
RANDY WESTON PHOTO BY ARIANE SMOLDEREN
The Madison Community Arts Center is located at 10 Kings Road in Madison, NJ. The Jersey Jazz LIVE! concerts begin at 3 p.m. Admission is $15 for NJJS members and $20 for non-members. Student admission is $5 with valid ID. There will be light refreshments for purchase. To order tickets in advance, click HERE
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This LIVE! celebration is generously sponsored by NJJS member Noal Cohen.
