Randy Weston
| Randy Weston | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Randolph Edward Weston |
| Born | April 6, 1926 |
| Origin | Brooklyn, New York, US |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, composer, bandleader |
| Instruments | Piano |
| Years active | 1950s–present |
| Labels |
Motéma Music Verve Riverside Antilles |
| Website | www.RandyWeston.info |
Randy Weston (born April 6, 1926, in Brooklyn, New York) is an American jazz pianist and composer of Jamaican parentage. He was described by Marian McPartland as "one of the world's great visionary pianists and composers".
Weston's piano style owes much to Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk (he has paid direct tribute to both on the "portraits" albums), but it is highly distinctive in its qualities: percussive, highly rhythmic, capable of producing a wide variety of moods.
Also been characterized as a "griot of jazz and its African roots", Weston has said: "It's so important to teach the history of our music and the origins of our music, which comes directly from the African continent.... Musicians have to be historians, too." Described as "America's African Musical Ambassador", he has said: "What I do I do because it's about teaching and informing everyone about our most natural cultural phenomenon. It's really about Africa and her music."
Randolph Edward Weston was born in 1926 to Vivian (née Moore) and Frank Weston, and was raised in Brooklyn, where his father owned a restaurant. His father was of Jamaican-Panamanian descent, a staunch Garveyite, who passed on the Pan-Africanist leader's Afrocentric, self-reliant values to his son. Randy studied classical piano as a child and also took dance lessons. He graduated from Boys High School in Bedford-Stuyvesant; his father chose for him to attend there because it had a reputation for high standards. He took piano lessons from Professor Atwell, because unlike his former piano teachers, Atwell allowed him to play songs outside of the classical music repertoire.
After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, Weston ran a restaurant that was frequented by many of the leading bebop musicians. Among his piano heroes are Count Basie, Nat King Cole, Art Tatum and Duke Ellington (and Wynton Kelly was a cousin), but it was Thelonious Monk who had the greatest impact.
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