Randy Weston's African Rhythms Quartet

[LWayne]

Last Wednesday, April 6th, my wife and I took the opportunity to travel to Baltimore to see Randy Weston’s African Rhythm Quartet at the Walters Art Museum. This event was all the more special in that it marked the 85th birthday of the pioneering musician, and his family and friends were in attendance from New York to celebrate with him. Henry Wong of An Die Musik did an exceptional job of arranging the show and the post-concert birthday party and book-signing. It was a fabulous evening!

With the death of Benny Powell last year, the group has now become a quartet with Randy Weston on Piano, T.K. Blue on sax and flute, Alex Blake on Bass, and Neil Clarke on Drums. By their own count, the group has played together for more than 25 years, and the sense of simpatico, familiarity, and comfort among the members was evident from the start.

They launched into an extended version of “African Sunrise” to start the show. It began with an extended introduction of “Chano Pozo” by Weston before launching into the song. T.K. Blue provided the highlight by quoting “Manteca” and leading the entire group in a rendition of “Feliz Navidad” before closing out the song. The rest of the set included “The Healers”, a combination of “Love, the Mystery of” / “Niger Mambo”, two beautiful variations of “Hi Fly”, and the gorgeous “Blue Moses”. For an encore, the group decided to play a blues song to represent that genre and chose an extended version of “T.K.’s Blues”

To close the set, each member of the band feted their leader with birthday wishes and heartfelt testimony as to the impact that Weston has had on their musical careers. Neil Clarke summed it up best by paraphrasing the late Benny Powell in describing that Weston’s music was always represented an “adventure” for the group, not just another gig.

Afterwards, Weston warmly greeted each member of the audience waiting to get a book or CD autographed with genuine interest and kindness. I had brought a copy of the “Live at the Five Spot” CD to be signed which was of particular interest to him. He recalled the gig as a rare opportunity to work with one of his idols, Coleman Hawkins, and how fortunate he was to have him play Weston’s own music. For that reason, this session really meant a lot to him.

Overall, a truly memorable evening spent with one of the masters of the craft.

LWayne

[felser]

Awesome! Thanks so much for sharing this. I regret that I have never had opportunity to see Weston live, one of my most major "misses" here in the Philly area.