For Randy Weston, Harlem Speaks African Rhythms

World-renowned pianist and NEA Jazz Masters Award recipient Randy Weston sat down with National Jazz Museum in Harlem, New York Co-Director Christian McBride before a full house at the museum's Visitor's Center, as the featured guest speaker of its Harlem Speaks interview series on April 16, 2009.

Engaged in a one-on-one forum with McBride, Weston discussed how the roots of Africa affected jazz--a topic he is well immersed in throughout most of the allotted 90-minute session before taking questions from the audience.

Recalling his first trip to the continent in 1961, he recalled playing in Nigeria with Lionel Hampton's band. Although he had never directly experienced African music, Weston said he felt as though he was at home. After his departure following that initial experience in the motherland, he described feeling as if [he] had never left Africa.

And Africa has never left Weston. Since then hes played 18 African countries, furthering his hybrid blending of classic American jazz with ancient African Rhythms.

The product of a Panamanian father and mother born in Virginia, the Brooklyn, NY native and lifelong resident enjoyed a rich musically diverse childhood from which he benefited from exposure to his Latin roots, the local jazz artists he came in contact with, and choir music in the black church on Sundays. When you lose your culture, you lose your soul Weston quoted, stressing what had been instilled in him as a youngster by his Afro-centric minded dad.

Surprisingly, while reminiscing on his musical dalliances during life on the Chitlin Circuit in the early 1950swhere he played everything from blues to burlesque halls; the internationally revered icon relayed he didn't think he'd be a professional musician.

Although his father was very strict and stipulated that he practice piano daily, he laughingly added that being over six feet tall by the age of 12 he had considered a career in basketball. That is, he added, until he learned the sport included a lot more running then he thought was involved in throwing the ball through a hoop. Weston didn't start performing full-time until he was 29 years old.

On that original tour to Africa, he said he got to see traditional African dancers and Savoy dancers from NYC, and conveyed it was then he discovered we were a global people--all connected. He cited his deep love for Africa, the ancestors and humanity became evident.

Although he is adamant that you can never know Africa, he believes you can learn from its traditional music. An acclaimed performer, composer and bandleader, Weston related that he tried to absorb the musical culture of the Gnawas, a group of musicians and dancers from Morocco with whom he still plays. Gnawa means black (men) and according to researchers refers to an ethnic group and religious order in Morocco descended in part from former slaves from Sub-Saharan Africa or migrated via caravans during the trans-Saharan trade. Weston later recounted putting together a three-day festival in Tangiers, where he lived and ran a nightclub for several years.

In spite of slavery, we created beauty, he observed. It was the way we survived oppression, birth, death, etc. That's our foundation--from that came all this creativity. While acknowledging the first song he heard about Africa was Caravan by popular orchestra leader Duke Ellington, Weston lauds famed African-American Big Band leader Count Basie as his first musical influence. Blues, he stated, is the essence of our music. Many Western scholars today recognize the parallels between African American music like the blues, which is rooted in Black American spirituals and Gnawa music. The similarities in these artistic and scriptural representations are said to reflect the shared experiences of many groups of the African Diaspora.

Weston responded largely to comments from the crowd requesting he speak about other well-known musicians hes collaborated with over his extensive career. Just as the discussion was running out of time, Weston stressed that we have to get music back into the educational system.

Wrapping up the evening, he acknowledged musical talent is a gift from the creator and music brings us all together. He also made reference to his forthcoming autobiography titled African Rhythms, scheduled for release in spring 2010.