Randy Weston

Nuit Africaine Randy Weston

Randy Weston, born on April 6th, 1936 in Brooklyn, New York, received his classical piano tuition from Black teachers. He grew up with the music of Ellington, Tatum and Basie. During the mid-fifties Randy Weston played in a bar in Massachussetts, where he met the owner of the 'Riverside' label, who encouraged him to record his first record on the label. Here, Randy met people like Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Jimmy Rushing and the drummer Massada Teforo from Guinea, who introduced Randy Weston to African music. 'When I heard that music, something opened inside me, and I could not get enough of it' Randy comments.'In those days being into African influences was not as much in fashion as it is now, but my father has always been interested. He was from Panama, and he made me aware of being an African who happened to be born in the USA, and how, one day, I would return to our country of origin. There, I would be more in touch with myself and my music ond other things.'Because of my strong interest in Africa I was invited to the first Afro-American Festival in Nigeria in 1961. Along with me they invited Booker Ervin, Lionel Hampton, Langston Hughes. This was the first festival with a real encounter between North American and African artists.' In 1963 Randy Weston returned to Nigeria to run courses of Afro-American Music at the country's universitys . In 1967 the State Department invited him to organise and lead a three week tour to Africa. ' We visited 14 African countries, and it became more and more obvious to me that I wanted to settle in Africa to be closer to the people and their music. Our last concert was in Morocco, which is where I ended up living for six years.'