TONYA MOSLEY, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. Today marks the 100th birthday of jazz pianist and composer Randy Weston, who had a 60-year recording career, during which he lived in the U.S., Morocco and France. He was influenced by Duke Ellington's regal bearing and cosmopolitan charm, as much as Duke's style in the piano. But Weston had his own style. Early on, he wrote the jazz standards "Hi-Fly" and "Little Niles." And later, he composed an autobiography, "African Rhythms." Jazz historian Kevin Whitehead gives us this quick character sketch.
(SOUNDBITE OF RANDY WESTON'S "LITTLE NILES")
KEVIN WHITEHEAD, BYLINE: Randy Weston's classic tune, "Little Niles," from 1956, written for his young son. Weston came up in a Brooklyn neighborhood chock full of ambitious musicians. His West African father instilled in him a fierce sense of Pan African pride. Getting to know Thelonious Monk opened Randy's ears to the piano's sonic possibilities and the need to develop an individual style. Monk's timing left a mark, but Weston found his own ways to make the piano hammers ring with a springy touch and dancing phrases. His high spirits are contagious.
(SOUNDBITE OF RANDY WESTON TRIO'S "CHESSMAN'S DELIGHT")
WHITEHEAD: When Randy Weston was young, Brooklyn bars and clubs featured lots of blues bands. And looking back later, he was surprised how many blues he'd written. Early on, he'd accompany jazz history lectures, prompting him to develop sturdy left hand moves like the old masters. He'd plum grand pianos' extreme low notes, the sub-basement most players avoid.
(SOUNDBITE OF RANDY WESTON'S "AFRICAN VILLAGE BEDFORD-STUYVESANT 1")
WHITEHEAD: At 6 1/2 feet tall, Randy Weston had a long reach, the better to swipe both ends of the keyboard. He was also fond of piano's chiming high notes for their brittle percussion or to lighten a mood or suggest a kid's perspective. 1963's "Congolese Children" was orchestrated by trombonist Melba Liston, who'd arranged Weston's large bands for five decades. Her own centennial was in January.
(SOUNDBITE OF RANDY WESTON'S "CONGOLESE CHILDREN")
WHITEHEAD: In the early '60s, Melba Liston arranged Randy Weston's LPs "Uhuru Afrika" and "Highlife: Music From The New African Nations." Such music led to him touring North and West Africa, sponsored by the U.S. State Department. He got such a warm reception in Morocco, he moved there in 1967. In Tangier, his African Rhythms Club was a regular tourist stop into the early '70s. And Weston often revisited the continent later. His trans-Saharan travels inform his epic 1989 take on the Ellington standard "Caravan." Randy Weston later called it the first song I learned to play about Africa.
(SOUNDBITE OF RANDY WESTON'S "CARAVAN")
WHITEHEAD: Randy Weston was appropriately lionized in later years with multiple honors, a reliable touring group and recordings with big bands and distinguished peers from jazz and beyond. Whatever he played, he made diverse Pan-African traditions sound like facets of one big thing, all within easy reach, like the high and low ends of his keyboard. After a globe-trotting life, Randy Weston died back home in Brooklyn in 2018 at 92.
(SOUNDBITE OF RANDY WESTON'S "BLUE MOSES")
MOSLEY: Jazz historian Kevin Whitehead.
(SOUNDBITE OF RANDY WESTON'S "BLUE MOSES")
MOSLEY: On tomorrow's show, comic Jeff Ross is known as the roastmaster general. He's produced and hosted celebrity roasts and dealt out hilarious insults. In his new Netflix comedy special, he gets personal. We'll talk about working in his family's catering hall on weddings and bar mitzvahs, his parents, their deaths and his own health issues. I hope you can join us.
(SOUNDBITE OF RANDY WESTON'S "BLUE MOSES")
MOSLEY: To keep up with what's on the show and get highlights of our interviews, follow us on Instagram - @nprfreshair. And catch our interviews on video by subscribing to our YouTube channel at @thisisfreshair. Our executive producer is Sam Briger. Our senior producer today is Therese Madden. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Ann Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, Monique Nazareth, Thea Chaloner, Susan Nyakundi, Anna Bauman and Nico Gonzalez-Wisler. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Roberta Shorrock directs the show. With Terry Gross, I'm Tonya Mosley.
(SOUNDBITE OF RANDY WESTON'S "BLUE MOSES") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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