Randy Weston
"He [Junior Mance] plays with gathering emotional intensity that involves a good sense of dynamics and above all, a feeling for drama that can heighten the tension-release structure that is at the core of most effective self-expression in any field." --Nat Hentoff
“Weston has the biggest sound of any jazz pianist since Ellington and Monk, as well as the richest most inventive beat," states jazz critic Stanley Crouch, “but his art is more than projection and time; it’s the result of a studious and inspired intelligence . . . an intelligence that is creating a fresh synthesis of African elements with jazz technique.”
BOSTON, MA--worldpianosummit.com comes to Boston to celebrate Thelonious Monk @ 92. Monk’s birthday is October 10 and two landmark concerts will honor his legacy. These concerts launch an annual series in Boston, which will continue until the occasion of the centennial of Thelonious Monk’s birth – October 10, 2017.
Junior Mance @ 81 will be a rare solo piano concert at Boston’s Church of the Covenant, [67 Newbury Street, Boston, MA 02116] on Thursday, October 8 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets at $25 and $20 for students are on sale now at http://www.worldpianosummit.com. For more information call: 484-560-
Thelonious Monk at 92, featuring pianist Randy Weston will take place at the Somerville Theater [55 Davis Square, Somerville, MA 02144] on Monday, October 12 [Columbus Day] at 7:30 p.m. Tickets at $34, $29, $24 and $19 [including $1.00 restoration charge] go on sale as of Saturday, September 5 at 10 A.M. at the Somerville Theatre box office or at www.somervilletheatreonline.com. For more information call: 617-625-
A special animated film short by animator/illustrator Maciek Albrecht will precede the Randy Weston performance.
About Junior Mance:
At age 81, Junior Mance can look back on an amazing life in jazz.
Mance was born on October 10, 1928 and began playing the piano in 1932 – at the age of five. He started playing professionally during his early teens and in 1947 Junior joined Gene Ammons’ band which also began his recording career. He joined Lester Young in 1949 for almost two years and rejoined Ammons several months in 1951 before being drafted into the U.S. Army. Mance served in the 36th Army Band at Fort Knox, Kentucky along with Julian “Cannonball”
After his discharge from the Army in 1953, Junior Mance became part of the house rhythm section at the Bee Hive Jazz Club in Chicago for a year and accompanied jazz greats such as Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Sonny Stitt and many others.
In 1954 Junior joined and toured with Dinah Washington. Among the numerous recordings he made with her, there are two that really stand out in his memory: Dinah Jams and Jam Session. These two live albums feature Clifford Brown, Max Roach, Clark Terry, Maynard Ferguson, Herb Geller, Harold Land, Keter Betts, George Morrow, Richie Powell and Junior.
In 1956 Junior reunited with Cannonball Adderley, becoming a member of Cannonball’s first organized working band. The band did a series of recordings on Mercury Records.
Junior joined Dizzy Gillespie’s band in 1958, a period Junior considers one of the highlights of his career. Besides the joy and fun of playing with Dizzy, he remembers this period as a great learning experience in musicianship, showmanship and just about everything related to the business of music.
In 1961, Junior formed his first trio following the release of his first recording as a leader, Junior on Verve Records. In between gigs with his trio he played and recorded with the Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis/Johnny Griffin Quintet. With his trio he also accompanied singer Joe Williams in l963/64.
Beginning in the late seventies, Junior started performing with bassist Marty Rivera. Junior and Marty spent over 20 years as a duo performing both nationally and internationally.
In 1988, Junior became a member of the faculty of the Jazz and Contemporary Music Program at the New School University in New York City. He teaches classes in blues, coaches blues ensembles, gives private individual lessons on piano and helps students in the development of their career in playing jazz.
During the 1990s Junior became a part of a very elite group called “100 Gold Fingers.” This is a group that consists of ten outstanding jazz pianists and tours Japan every other year. On various tours the group has included such piano greats as Hank Jones, John Lewis, Tommy Flanagan, Kenny Barron, Ray Bryant, Roger Kellaway, Gene Harris, Marion McPartland, Barry Harris, Toshiko Akioshi, Lynn Arriale, Cyrus Chestnut, Benny Green, Duke Jordan, Jo Anne Brackeen, Monty Alexander, Dave McKenna, Renee Rosnes, Mulgrew Miller, Harold Mabern and others.
Despite nearly seven decades of contributions to jazz music, it wasn’t until October 5th – 7th of 2000 that Junior Mance made his solo piano debut at Lincoln Center at the Kaplan Penthouse.
About Randy Weston:
Born in Brooklyn on April 6, 1926, Randy Weston, at age 83, is one of several very special and very idiosyncratic composer-pianists to emerge at the end of the bebop era. Elmo Hope and Herbie Nichols are the other two prime examples.
After contributing six decades of musical direction and genius, Randy Weston remains one of the world's foremost pianists and composers today, a true innovator and visionary. Encompassing the vast rhythmic heritage of Africa, his global creations musically continue to inform and inspire.
Randy Weston, born in Brooklyn, New York in 1926, didn't have to travel far to hear the early jazz giants that were to influence him. Though Weston cites Count Basie, Nat King Cole, Art Tatum, and of course, Duke Ellington as his other piano heroes, it was Monk who had the greatest impact. “He was the most original I ever heard,” Weston remembers. “He played like they must have played in Egypt 5000 years ago.”
Randy Weston’s first recording as a leader came in 1954 on Riverside Records with Randy Weston Plays Cole Porter In A Modern Mood. It was in the ‘50s when Weston played around New York with Cecil Payne and Kenny Dorham that he wrote many of his best loved tunes such as “Saucer Eyes,” “Pam’s Waltz,” “Little Niles” and “Hi-Fly.” Of his greatest hit, “Hi-Fly,” Weston, who is 6' 8", says, it’s a “tale of being my height and looking down at the ground.”
Randy Weston has never failed to make the connections between African and American music. His dedication is due in large part to his father, Frank Edward Weston, who told his son that he was, “an African born in America.” “He told me I had to learn about myself and about him and about my grandparents,”
Weston’s most recent CD, entitled African Rhythms was released this year.
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
