© Julie Lemberger

Composer and Pianist Randy Weston was born April 6, 1926, and raised in Brooklyn, New York. In the late 1940s he studied privately with Thelonious Monk and began playing piano professionally in the early 1950’s with Cecil Payne, Ray Copeland, and Kenny Dorham. In 1954 he became the first modern jazz soloist
to record for the Riverside label and, in retrospect, is one of the few major pianists to borrow directly from the style of Monk.
Many of his compositions have become jazz standards and he is internationally praised and has performed in every major jazz club in New York, in other major American hubs, and in North and West Africa. Weston made his first trip to Nigeria in 1961and subsequently made a three-month tour of fourteen North and West African countries with his sextet in 1967. This led him to settle in Morocco in 1968, where he continued to tour and perform throughout Morocco, Tunisia, Togo, the Ivory Coast, and Liberia. Weston has made more than fifty recordings throughout his lifetime, the most celebrated including African Cookbook, Little Niles, Blue Moses, Berkshire Blues, Uhuru Africa, and Grammy-nominated Tanjah and Carnaval. A prolific composer, Weston’s highly individualistic works have been recorded by jazz virtuosi like Max Roach, Monty Alexander, Dexter Gordon, Jimmy Heath, Kenny Burrell, Abbey Lincoln, Bobby Hutchinson, Lionel Hampton, and Cannonball Adderly. Weston is an articulate spokesman on the pivotal position of African music, dance, and other arts within world culture; on the diversity and importance of Africa’s vast musical resources; and on encouraging true cultural exchange and mutual learning between creative artists.