HolyStitt

Chas, Thanks for the links and the image.

About meeting Randy, all I can suggest is being patient and waiting for the right moment. In Minneapolis, at the Dakota an Artist Quarter, the band members will hang out in the restaurant between sets and usually leave the club the same way the patrons do, so it's pretty easy to meet people. I have met Weston, James Moody, Roy Haynes, and Charles Lloyd that way. You may be right about Liston's contributions to the Ellingtonian elemements. I think that I can blur their contributions to the music together as one.

Sorry, Lon. At times, at can I get easily excited! I agree. I think he has a great sense of space and time in his music. It seems that he incorporated Ellington's ability to effectively use soloists in a big band setting, Monk use of space and time, and mixed it all together with his African Rhythms. I have spoken to a few jazz musicians and Weston was by far the nicest. I wanted to tell him how much his music has meant to me. He told me to sit down at his table with him and talk for a while. We talked about the performance in S.F. (how much it meant for Melba), Johnny Coles, Booker Ervin, and Min Xiao Fen (who performs on Khepera). He was a very kind and warm person. This is a side note: I used to be on the Blue Note Bulletin Board back in the day when it was around. What was their 'official' reason for dumping it? BTW: I am very happy Organissimo is a place that us old BNBB folks can meet.

[quote name='jazzbo' date='Feb 24 2006, 03:32 PM' post='477283' As time goes by I get more and more a fan of Weston's work. . . . I think I have all the official and a lot of the unofficial recordings! Long may he reign!

'Uhuru/Africa' is a great, I have the Collector's Choice CD. This is one of the few Weston CDs/LPs I have never heard. I actually emailed Cuscuna in the late 1990's about putting out a Weston Mosaic. I am really excited about the 'Little Miles' and the 'Live at the Five Spot' material. I have only heard Melba Liston play trombone on some early Dexter Gordon sides from the 1940's. It should be interesting to compare the difference in her arrangements on this session to her other arrangements of these composoitions. The 'Five Spot' stuff looks interesting for Coleman Hawkins and Kenny Dorham playing with Weston. I should stop typing and start listening to this music!

Thanks for the heads up. I am very excited about this music. I have seen Randy twice and met him the last time I saw him. I had most of the music on LP, but it's nice to have it all on CD. I also picked up The Johnny Coles Quartet "The Warm Sound" (another Lp bump up), which Weston has performs on and contributed 4 compositions. When I met him, he had found memroies of performing on the session. I am very excited about the Tolliver because most of the material is new to me, since I only have one of the LP's. I had to buy the set after hearing an advance of the "Time Lines" CD.

I have put off doing a Mosaic order for some time, with money being tight while I am in school, but I recently did an order because I had some extra cash and I wanted the Dexter Gordon Mosaic Select so my buddy might be able to use it on his radio show for Dexter's impending birthday. In my order, I picked up the Dexter Gordon Mosaic Select , the Charles Tolliver Mosaic Select (I just love my Slugs' LP volume two, but have never been able to find volume one!), the Randy Weston Mosaic Select. The Dexter Gordon & the Charles Tolliver had reasonable numbers (DEX-3459 &TOL-1352), but the Weston had a number at 4894. I don't know if they are sending the numbers out in random order, but I thought people should be warned that it seems that it might be nearing "Last Chance" status soon.