Thursday, September 10, 2015 at 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
John L. Tishman Auditorium,
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The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music is proud to announce Randy Weston as our
first ever Artist-In-Residence, for the academic year '15-'16. Pianist,
composer, and bandleader, Randy Weston is one of the world’s most
influential jazz musicians, a remarkable innovator and visionary whose
career has spanned five continents and more than six decades.
To
kick off Weston's residency at the New School, this program will
introduce Randy and his long career through a conversation with Robin D.G. Kelley (Professor of American History at UCLA, author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original, 2009), with piano demonstrations by Randy Weston, and audio and video samples.
This
event is the first of the five major public programs associated with
Weston's residency. Future events will feature various aspects of
Weston's artistry and his major influences, including traditional Gnawa
musicians from Morocco (Oct 13), master drummers from Senegal (Nov 17),
as well as a symposium in the African Drum and a major closing concert
(both of which will take place in Spring 2016). In each program, Randy
Weston will discuss the influence of African music and culture on his
own music, and perform with the guest artists.
Born
in Brooklyn, New York in 1926, to a Jamaican and Panamanian father and a
mother from Virginia, Weston didn't have to travel far to hear the
early jazz giants that were to influence him. Due in large part to his
father, Frank Edward Weston (who told his son that he was, "an African
born in America”), Africa is at the core of Weston’s music and
spirituality. He has traversed the continent on a continuous quest to
learn about its musical traditions, produced its first major jazz
festival, and lived for years in Morocco, where he opened a popular
music venue, the African Rhythms Club, in Tangier.
Weston has forged unique partnerships with Langston Hughes, the musician and arranger Melba Liston, and the jazz scholar Marshall Stearns, as well as his friendships and collaborations with Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins, Thelonious Monk, Billy Strayhorn, Max Roach, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, the novelist Paul Bowles, the Cuban percussionist Candido Camero, the Ghanaian jazz artist Kofi Ghanaba, the Gnawa musicians of Morocco, and many others.
In October 2010, Duke University Press published African Rhythms: The Autobiography of Randy Weston,
“composed by Randy Weston, arranged by Willard Jenkins". It was hailed
as "an important addition to the jazz historiography and a long
anticipated read for fans of this giant of African American music, aka
jazz."
In
recognition of his artistic achievements, Randy Weston has been the
recipient of many awards and honors, including a Jazz Masters Fellowship
from the National Endowment for the Arts; John Simon Guggenheim
Memorial Foundation Fellow; Doris Duke Award; French Order of Arts and
Letters; and Honorary Doctor of Music degrees from the New England
Conservatory and Brooklyn College.
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Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: jim@jazzpromoservices.com
http://www.jazzpromoservices.