Search - Randy Weston :: Solo Duo & Trio

Solo Duo & Trio
Randy Weston
Solo Duo & Trio
Genres: Jazz, Pop
 
  •  Track Listings (18) - Disc #1

Randy Weston's distinctive compositions and pianism have long mined the music's African sources to enrich the idiom. This CD presents Weston at the very beginnings of his recording career, combining his first two LPs. The ...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: Randy Weston
Title: Solo Duo & Trio
Members Wishing: 3
Total Copies: 0
Label: Milestone
Original Release Date: 1/1/1954
Re-Release Date: 10/10/2000
Genres: Jazz, Pop
Styles: Modern Postbebop, Bebop
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPCs: 025218478526, 090204980024

Synopsis

Amazon.com
Randy Weston's distinctive compositions and pianism have long mined the music's African sources to enrich the idiom. This CD presents Weston at the very beginnings of his recording career, combining his first two LPs. The earliest is a selection of eight Cole Porter tunes from 1954, played in duet with his regular partner, Sam Gill, a little-known bassist who provides solid and sympathetic foundations. The second combines a 1955 trio session, with Gill and Art Blakey on drums, and a series of solos from 1956. The most creative members of Weston's generation were strongly influenced by Thelonious Monk, and none more so than Weston. It was a thoroughly positive influence, though, and Weston was beginning to shape it into his own distinctive approach. It leads to the deliberated harmonic explorations and the acute sense of rhythmic displacement that he employs in probing the standards here, rethinking them at their structural core and adding thoughtfully placed splashes of often dissonant keyboard color. The trio blues "Zulu" is already a sign of Weston's later-developed interests in polyrhythms, and it shows a striking kinship with another great pianist of the time, Herbie Nichols. --Stuart Broomer

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CD Reviews

Roots Of A Champion.
Michael F. Hopkins | Buffalo, NY USA | 03/31/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)

"From 1954 to 1956, these are the first recordings

from one of the grandmasters of African American

perspective, a genius of the acoustic piano, and

one highly exceptional composer. These milestones

are the debut recordings of Randy Weston, and they

are a special treat for anyone who loves great

Music in general, and Jazz in

particular.

With the recordings of Thelonious Monk, Herbie

Nichols, Cecil Taylor and Horace Silver, SOLO,

DUO, AND TRIO features some of the most epic,

versatile pianistry to emerge from the 1950s.

Listen to Weston's hip-walking take on "Sweet

Sue" (the spirit call of drummer Art Blakey

forecasting the rituals to come), and associate

the subtle dance and finger-popping sway with

a new kid on the block!

Too, Weston's originality as a composer and

soloist is already intact. Listen to the

infectious serenade of "Pam's Waltz", or the

warrior's stroll of "Zulu", and you hear a

musicmaker of the highest order. Employing

intervals usually associated with Monk

(especially with the "Rootie Tootie"-

inspired cadence opening "Zulu"), Weston

wields all tools with a lyrical grasp

all his own.

Listening further to Weston in solo

performance, or his inspired duos with

bassist Sam Gill interpreting Cole

Porter, you are always in the presence

of a highly original artist. It is a

humble, forthright artistry which would

evolve -over the decades- into

the towering trailblazing which

would conceive UHURU AFRIKA, THE

HEALERS, AFRICAN COOKBOOK, and

other bulwarks of globe-crossing

Black genius.



Weston's jubilant stride continues

today through epic recordings such

as IN THE SPIRITS OF OUR ANCESTORS

and ZEP TEPI. His is a momentous

stride full of character, dignity,

and Wisdom's might.



Hear how it all began."
Shades of Herbie...
D. Bush | Albuquerque,NM-USA | 12/12/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)

"WOW! Early Weston, showing influences of/on Monk & Nichols!

A choice recording that should be in every Jazz collection!!!"