[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 131 (Wednesday, September 7, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1551]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 HONORING NEA JAZZ MASTER RANDY WESTON

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR.

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, September 7, 2011

  Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, legendary jazz artist Randy Weston will be 
honored this year by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation at the 
Jazz Issue Forum and Concert that will take place during the 40th 
Annual Legislative Conference. Mr. Weston will also perform at the 
concert, which will take place on Thursday, September 22, 2011, at the 
Walter E. Washington Convention Center, in Washington, DC.
  Randy Weston is an internationally renowned pianist, composer, 
bandleader and cultural ambassador, whose compositions encompass the 
vast rhythmic heritage of both America and Africa. After six decades of 
active work, he is widely recognized as a true innovator and visionary 
who continues to inform and inspire. Mr. Weston has had an outstanding 
career that deserves the recognition of this body. Let me share some of 
the highlights from his biography.
  Randy Weston was born on April 6, 1926 and raised in Brooklyn, New 
York, son of parents from Jamaica and Virginia. New York City has long 
been a Mecca for jazz giants and Weston cites Count Basie, Duke 
Ellington, and Art Tatum as his piano heroes. It was Thelonius Monk, 
however, who made the greatest impact. ``He was the most original I 
ever heard,'' Mr. Weston remembers. ``He played like they must have 
played in Egypt 5000 years ago.''
  Much of Mr. Weston's connection to African music stems from his 
father, Frank Edward Weston, who told his son he was ``an African born 
in America. . . . . He told me I had to learn about myself, about him 
and about my grandparents,'' stated Weston, ``and the only way to do it 
was I'd have to go back to the motherland one day.'' Inspired by 
Nigeria's newly won independence from the United Kingdom, Weston 
started to incorporate tribal music with a type of West African pop 
music known as High Life. This blend culminated in Mr. Weston's 1960 
album Uhuru Afrika, which featured traditional African percussion and 
rhythms in the form of a jazz suite.
  In the late 1960's, Mr. Weston took his father's advice and left the 
United States for Morocco, travelling throughout Africa to experience 
each country's musical diversity. One of the highlights of his travels 
was the 1977 Nigerian Festival, which drew artists from 60 cultures. 
``At the end,'' Weston says, ``we all realized that our music was 
different but the same, because if you take out the African elements of 
bossa nova, samba, jazz, blues, you have nothing. . . . To me, it's 
Mother Africa's way of surviving in the New World.'' He had the honor 
of playing at the Kamigamo Shrine in Kyoto, Japan in 2008 and 
commemorated the 50th Anniversary of his Uhuru Africa album in 2010. 
With his strong connection to African music, Weston has enjoyed success 
with the dozens of albums he released over the past 50 years.
  Randy Weston has received awards and acclaim at home and abroad, 
including the prestigious Jazz Masters Award from the National 
Endowment for the Arts, NEA, in 2001. He has also received an honorary 
Doctor of Music degree from Brooklyn College, City University of New 
York, in June 2006. In 2009 he was added to the American Society of 
Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Jazz Wall of Fame. On May 11, 
2011 Weston received the award of Royal Wissam of National Merit of the 
Order of Officer by command of His Majesty the King Mohammed VI of 
Morocco, for his lifelong commitment to Morocco. His memoirs, African 
Rhythms: The Autobiography of Randy Weston, composed by Randy Weston 
and arranged by Willard Jenkins, was published in 2010.
  Mr. Speaker, Randy Weston is a living jazz treasure and I urge all 
members to join me in commending him for his magnificent contribution 
to jazz fans around the world.

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