Weston Agor

Former National Amateur Blues Talent champion John Weston made his recording debut with this session, a raw, hard-rocking example of updated Delta blues. Weston's rough lead vocals and cutting harmonica aren't rock-influenced; they're reflective of performers whose inspiration comes from country, soul, and gospel, and whose songs and stories are as simple today as those of their predecessors in the '20s and '30s. Weston was backed by guitarist Troy Lee Broussard, bassist James Jones, and drummer Nathaniel Williams, with Weston supplying the compositions. It wasn't pretty, but it was certainly undiluted, real blues.

Recorded in 1972, Blue Moses, the most commercially successful album in pianist/composer Randy Weston's catalog remains one of his most controversial due to his conflicted feelings about the final product, which he feels is too polished and too far from his original intent for the project. Indeed, appearing on Creed Taylor's CTI imprint was an almost certain guarantee of polished production. Weston plays both acoustic and Rhodes piano here; he was backed by a band of CTI's star-studded stable: trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, tenor saxophonist Grover Washington, flutists Hubert Laws and Romeo Penque, drummer Billy Cobham, alternate bassists Ron Carter and Bill Wood, and percussionists Phil Kraus, Airto Moreira, and Weston's son Azzedin…

This early release from Randy Weston finds the pianist still in his formative stages. His supple technique is evident, along with key influences: Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, and Art Tatum - their lessons not quite yet melded into an approach of Weston's own. As well, this 1955 date is from the period before Weston's time spent in Nigeria and Northern Africa, where he absorbed musical experiences that would help form the more distinctive approach that emerged in his playing in the 1960s. The set shows Weston's facility with standards, Ellingtonia, even ragtime, but, with several tracks coming in well under four minutes, the performances offer little room for development. The impression here is that of a pianist of great potential limbering up before the curtain rises for the show…

If Weston is a somewhat diffident musician, it may be because he did not perform in public until after his 60th birthday. Nevertheless, his debut album consists of original and accomplished material, in stark contrast to a number of other late developers who struggle to interpret rather than invent. Weston has a childhood memory of Sonny Boy ‘Rice Miller’ Williamson cutting across his parents’ farm on his way to country suppers and juke-joints, with a belt of harmonicas strapped across his chest. Later, he heard Miller’s King Biscuit Time on KFFA out of Helena, while he pursued a number of jobs as a farmer, butcher, car mechanic and carpenter. His own harmonica technique was developed with the assistance of Willie Cobbs…