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".
Since this is the description Marian McPartland gave Randy Weston, I think his music is a good place to start in my search for new music. I'm going to begin with "Da Blues"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vinm6KMlFkAI don't mean the Delta Blues, but that hip New York kind of blues; that's the kind Mary Lou liked; sounds so good to me. Now we go to "African Cookbook".
Music Review by Scott Yanow
When African Cookbook was recorded in 1964, pianist Randy Weston had no luck interesting any label to release the music, so he came out with it independently on his tiny Bakton company. In 1972, Atlantic released the performances. It is surprising that no company in the mid-'60s signed Weston, because "Willie's Tune," from this set, had the potential to catch on, and "Berkshire Blues" is somewhat well-known and the mixture of accessible bop with African rhythms overall is appealing. Trumpeter Ray Copeland was responsible for the arrangements while Weston contributed all but one of the songs. Copeland and the great tenor Booker Ervin have their share of solo space, bassist Vishnu Wood and drummer Lenny McBrowne are fine in support, and on three numbers the percussion of Big Black and Sir Harold Murray are added; Big Black also sings on "Congolese Children." An excellent outing.
Now it's apparent why I know so little about this great artist; he couldn't get anybody to record his music. We gonna see what "African Cookbook" sounds like.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sda6b_0KiakIt's getting off to a real good start. "Music soothes the savage beast", and calm's the restless mind. Rok, are you ready to explore Randy?
Enjoy the music.