Remember when majors supported adventurous jazz?

In the Venn diagram depicting Randy Weston s influences and stylistic affinities, there would be overlaps with Monk, Ellington, perhaps Abdullah Ibrahim, Morocco, Tangier, Nigeria. And a large part of it would remain Weston himself, unshadowed and unaccompanied. Blues to Africa lives up to its title, evoking Brooklyn playgrounds and Marrakech marketplaces with equal ease.

Weston’s stark tunes are complex in conception, organically merging jazz harmonies and African rhythms with the occasional passage of bracing dissonance. 
These two tracks, recorded thirty-two years ago almost to the day, capture Weston in an especially playful mood, drawing inspiration from both sides of the Atlantic. Kasbah Kids a cockeyed nursery rhyme; chiming, playful, simple but never simplistic.

Monk in a red helium balloon. African Village/Bed-Stuy,  a rolling blue strut, unique to no land, recognizable in all. Nod your head, tip your hat, say good morning.

Blues to Africa was among the first wave of releases on the Arista imprint Freedom, which generated a of great albums. Remember when majors supported adventurous jazz? Me neither.

Weston s site has devoted to this album (and more), including the original liner notes; you can also stream snippets from each of the disk s eight tracks.
on Sunday, July 30th, 2006 at 11:47 pm and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the feed.

Thanks!! My favourite six foot eight piano player .

I wish I were that tall. Then I could reach all the 10s on the piano with my left hand, and maybe 14ths also. lol
Any jazz musicians taller than Weston?

I can t think of any at the moment.
This site is great, by the way. Looking forward to more cool posts.

An mp-free jazz blog focusing on rare or out-of-print music. We generally publish twice a week, on Mondays and Wednesdays (or so). Songs will be available for about two weeks, and are for evaluation purposes only.

Chilly Jay Chill and Prof. Drew LeDrew. Co-proprietors of .

Requests, rants, and rights issues to: destination.out [ at ] gmail [ dot ] com.

Because we like you.

Also for the ladies.

Just be yourself. And no direct linking to tracks, please.

Read more on by destination-out.com. All rights reserved.