Joëlle Léandre Rocks On, Freely
You ask, ‘Why’?” says Joëlle Léandre, 71, when asked about recording somewhere between 140 and 200 albums since 1981, with three times as many gigs … Read More “Joëlle Léandre Rocks On, Freely”
Randy Weston: Uhuru Afrika (Roulette, 1961)
Uhuru Afrika was a monumental release: a 24-piece big band playing Melba Liston’s arrangements of Weston’s music, with poetry and lyrics by Langston Hughes, in a four-movement suite that fused jazz with African rhythms and song structures. Its music is so powerful that it was banned in South Africa. It also became the launchpad for the rest of Weston’s career, which saw him dubbed “America’s African Musical Ambassador.” MICHAEL J. WEST
Learn more about Uhuru Afrika on Amazon.
