African Rhythms: The Autobiography of Randy Weston (Refiguring American Music)
Pianist, composer, and bandleader Weston has been designated a Jazz Master by the National Endowment of the Arts and named jazz composer of the year three times by DownBeat magazine. He has performed around the world, from Africa to Japan, Russia to Rwanda, and his journey began in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, where his parents cultivated in him a love of all things African. The company he has kept over the years has been exquisite. He has played with drummer Max Roach (as an inexperienced, green piano player), played for Charlie Parker, and hung out with Thelonious Monk. Other prominent African American figures are here, too: Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins, and Miles Davis. Weston seems to have known everyone and shares colorful and often insightful anecdotes. This renowned jazz musician considers himself to be primarily a storyteller, and a central theme in this book and in his life is remembering where he came from, so that creating music is his way of connecting with his African heritage. A moving testament to a life well lived. --June Sawyers