Randy Weston Professions : Jazz Pianist Born : April 6, 1926 Browse All Authors Top 5 quotes by Randy Weston In Africa I discovered what the true purpose of a musician is. We are historians, and it is our purpose to tell the people the true story of our past, and to extend a better vision of the future. Randy Weston visions-of-the-future people past We all have music in us - your heartbeat is your drum, your voice is your sound - and music is supposed to put you in tune with nature. Randy Weston sound-and-music voice tunes There's no appreciation for the giants [of jazz]; there's never been a major film on Duke Ellington , never a major film on Louis Armstrong. What they accomplished, we could never accomplish today...What's happening now is lightweight compared to what happened before. If Louis Armstrong was alive today, he'd be a superstar. If Art Tatum was alive today, my god, all the piano players would get on their knees. So that's what's missing today; we've been cut off from our heritage. Randy Weston music appreciation art Our past as well as our future. It could have been completely destroyed when we were brought to the New World as slaves. They even took away our drums. And I don't want to talk about all those negative things going on. But its music is more present in our lives than ever. Blues, samba, calypso, reggae, jazz, salsa, Africa is everywhere. Randy Weston past negative world At first I didn't understand what [Thelonious Monk] was doing, but I went back again, and what I can say about Monk is that I heard ancient Africa in his music. When he played, it was like a ballet. He captured the sound of the universe. Monk could take a triad, a simple chord, and make it sound dissonant. I'm sure that element he had in his piano was part of the two years he spent traveling with his mother in gospel music in the tent shows. Randy Weston music simple mother Similar Authors Brad Mehldau jazz-pianist Andrew Hill jazz-pianist Art Tatum jazz-pianist Alice Coltrane jazz-pianist Billy Taylor jazz-pianist Ahmad Jamal jazz-pianist All Authors
