[.ca] Weston, Randy: Live In St. Lucia

Afro-Latin jazz of the highest order:
St. Lucia, that diminutive Caribbean island, proves to be the perfect setting for Randy Weston's deep-delved African/Latin jazz explorations. In the heart of what V. S. Naipaul called "The Middle Passage," that is, the center of the Caribbean Islands that received the African slave trade and which became a "Client Culture" for the West, Randy Weston brings his Afro-Latin band. I don't know what it is about this setting--some kind of primal sensibility--but Weston and company deliver a burning set that exudes the depth and pathos that lies at the center of Afro-Latin experience. Everything here has been recorded by Weston before--but never this spectacularly. The band, a hot one, featuring long-time Weston colleague and music director T. K. Blue (Talib Kibwe) on sax and flute, Alex Blake on acoustic bass, Benny Powell on Trombone, and Neil Clarke on African percussion, simply lays down some stone grooves from which spring startlingly progressive and rich musical excursions. Clarke, especially, seems totally tuned in, and his solo on the opening number simply mesmerizes, totally validating the decision to eschew a traditonal drum kit--and Alex Blake swings with a fury and abandon seldom encountered. From the open solo piano notes of "African Cookbook" to the last dying figures of "Blue Moses," a supremely elevated aesthetic gloriously unfolds. Maybe it's the opportunity to open up these Weston pieces to extended group conversation and improv that gives them a heretofore unrecognized gravitas; I don't know. But they achieve a weight of glory here that they previously had simply not attained. A spectacular set that has the power to move even the most hardened and cynical jazz warrior.

A Living Master:
Great video and audio quality, including a 5.1 mix. Randy plays with his usual band members. If you like Randy you will love this. If you don't know about Randy Weston, he is a great jazz piano player and composer, who incorporates many elements of African music into the composition and playing of his own music, in a seamless organic way, without it seeming like a gimmick.