The Storyteller

With nearly seven decades of performance, composition, and teaching, pianist Randy Weston has devoted his life to connecting jazz to its roots in African music and culture, and through his music, translating that connection to western audiences. He once remarked, “...I think it is a miracle that African and European influences came together to produce jazz. It’s an act of God.” The melding of ancient heritage and Western translations of modern music put Weston’s The Storyteller on many “best of the year” lists and provides a fitting tribute to the 84-year-old’s career, as well as to the memory of his trombonist Benny Powell, who passed away six months after recording with the African Rhythms Sextet. 

This reunion of the Sextet—its first recording session in ten years—took place in late 2009 at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola as the musical companion to Weston’s autobiography, African Rhythms, published in 2010. In addition to the original ensemble of Powell, saxophonist/flautist T.K. Blue, bassist Alex Blake and percussionist Neil Clarke, Weston added drummer Lewis Nash, with whom he first connected back in 1998 at the Chicago Jazz Festival. The set’s 11 tracks include the opening piano solo dedicated to Afro-Cuban percussionist “Chano Pozo,” Weston’s acclaimed “African Sunrise,” a three-part “African Cookbook Suite,” an early composition, “The Shrine,”  the yin-and-yang pairings of “Loose Wig” and “Wig Loose” and of Weston’s signature “Hi Fly” and counterpart “Hi Fi,” and the one non-original, Weston’s perennial closer “Love, The Mystery Of” by the late Ghanian drummer, Guy Warren. 

Alex Blake©Andrea Canter

“The African Cookbook Suite” begins with “Tehuti”, a brief solo piano exploration again suggesting Monk (but more so!) in its dissonant tones and jerky rhythms; “Jus’ Blues” is the centerpiece, nearly 14 minutes of joyous ensemble collaboration that conjures an expanded, updated “Caravan,” with continuous propulsion and intermittent explosions from drums and percussion, alternately growling and searing hornplay (Powell in particular), exquisite piano from the leader (who here seems a blend of Abdullah Ibrahim’s understated elegance and Cecil Taylor’s imaginative fury), and subtle finesse from bassist Blake; a long wide-ranging solo from Lewis Nash nearly steals the show. The final segment, "The Bridge, features the acrobatic soloing (and subvocalizing) of Alex Blake, who can be as exciting to see as to hear. Alone, Blake summons an orchestra from his instrument.

Lewis Nash©Andrea Canter

“The Shrine” also extends beyond 11 minutes, slowly building from percussive piano, bass and percussion, adding horns, Blue on delicate flute like a bird flying through swirling desert winds, Powell adding gruff charm, Weston a majestic current. The piece fades as slowly as it began, in a shimmer of chimes. First recorded in the 50s, “Loose Wig” is filled with the bebop and Monk references that marked Weston’s influences of that time, but now it’s 60 years later and the wig is even more loose. Bass and percussion push a dramatic rhythm while the pianist manages a swinging eccentricity that lights fire under the cackling horns. T.K. Blue is downright funky, while Weston adds some razzle-dazzle over jumping basslines from Blake. Again the percussion team nearly steals the show before the horns return for a last, sassy hurrah. Immediately there’s a retort (“Wig Loose”), horn-free, with bass and percussion hitting fast and hard. 

Weston’s trademark crowd-pleaser, “Hi-Fly,” is taken at a relatively slow pace, a jaggedy ballad embellished with quick-silver fills, the pianist solo over the first three minutes before Blake and Powell enter, dark and sympathetic. Blue’s tangy, semi-sweet solo is one of the melodic highlights of the set. Weston follows, alone, with a dissonant urgency, closing and immediately reconvening the full band in reprise as a Latinized mid-tempo “Fly-Hi,” horns dueling playfully with percussion. Another signature composition, which Weston often performs as a finale, “Love, the Mystery Of” is introduced to the live audience by the pianist as a way “to capture the spirits of the ancients, because they had the secrets of rhythm and sound….their music is really a healing, spiritual force.”  The ensemble evokes those ancient spirits with majestic simplicity, a healing force for listeners at Dizzy’s as well as for anyone who has spent the previous 70+ minutes with one of the high priests of modern jazz. 
 

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