Jazz Legend Randy Weston Passes Away at 92
Sunday, September 02, 2018
NEA Jazz Master and Doris Duke Impact Award winner Rand Weston passed away at the age of 92 on Saturday.
"We lost a true musical giant, innovator and a warrior for the elevation of African-American pride and culture. Randy's compositions disseminating the richness and beauty of the African aesthetic are unparalleled,” said TK Blue, Weston’s musical director.
The death was announced by his wife and business partner Fatoumata Weston.
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About Weston
Weston was born in Brooklyn, New York, on April 6, 1926, to a Panamanian father and a mother originally from Virginia.
He has been laying down his music since his first CD, Cole Porter in a Modern Mood, in 1954 right up to The African Nubian Suite, released in 2016, and Sound in 2017.
Throughout his prolific 65-year recording career, Weston drew connections between the jazz and blues that surrounded him while growing up in Brooklyn and the music of Africa, his ancestral homeland.
Weston held honorary Doctor of Music degrees from Colby College, Brooklyn College and the New England Conservatory of Music. He served as artist-in-residence at New York University, the New School and Medgar Evers College at the City University of New York. In 2010, Duke University Press published African Rhythms: The Autobiography of Randy Weston, written by Weston and arranged by Willard Jenkins.
He was honored by King Mohammed VI of Morocco and was presented the Legacy Award by the Institute of the Black World. His decades of work are now archived at Harvard University.
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