#blue moses

Randy Weston Blue Moses @1972. Japan Pressing ****** 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 group was backed by a punchy Don Sebesky-arranged horn section. Blue Moses, consists of four compositions; it was an attempt by Weston to showcase the influence "Ganawa" music from Morocco had on him as a composer. "Ganawa (Blues Moses)," with its frenetic, minor-key piano lines, knotty, Middle Eastern Eastern-sounding charts, and skittering North African rhythms push the listener into a new space, one that stands outside of CTI's usual frame in, and into, the exotic. The brass is aggressive, and while that might overshadow some recordings of lesser substance, Sebesky knew what he had in Weston's tunes, and reigned his players in just enough to keep the dynamics fresh, open, and full of engaged call-and- response playing between Weston, Hubbard, and Laws. So too, album closer "Marrakesh Blues," with wordless backing vocals by Madame Meddah, twinned trumpet and flute lines, gorgeous electric piano solos, and a deep, strolling bassline. It's an Eastern modal blues with the sound of a horn section to boost its drama."Night in the Media" is a labyrinthine, more abstract piece, but utterly atmospheric and colorful in its arrangement, with exciting interplay between Weston's enormous chords and Washington's swinging, soulful saxophone and percussion instruments that create a lithe, spiritual jazz groove. No matter how Weston ultimately feels about Blue Moses, this date succeeds on all levels. Creating a commercially viable recording from the elements presented must not have been easy, but Taylor rose to the occasion and delivered a grooving beauty of an album without compromising Weston's genius.

A call to relentless and complete love; to honor and care for not just ourselves, not just those in our immediate circle, not just other humans, but all that we encounter. I think there is even a command within this meditation to seek out opportunities to flex this love, make it a practice and hone and refine this state of conscious, aware compassion. I don’t hear it as a call to convert, but to care for and live the way that Jesus lived, loved the way Jesus loved. Deeds as much as words. Randy Weston and Pharoah Sanders both demonstrated this approach, certainly in their music, and in their daily lives as well, according to those who know them. I am reminded of the gospel story of the men who received their inheritances and I’ve always been haunted by the guy who simply buried his. No, he didn’t squander it or waste it. But he also did nothing with it. These two great men could have easily sat upon their musical gifts, found a commercial niche, and rode that to a lifetime of accolades and steady paychecks. But they lived their music. They understood it as a gift, and not merely their own, but a universal, shared gift. It was incumbent upon them to delve into the gift. The roads that opened on this journey not only transported them, it took along many more and will continue to do so. The music navigated them to Africa, to the roots of their own heritage. Each made extraordinary music with the Gnawa Brotherhood. But the universal element of the journey opens other roads, too, so this journey to Africa they took, it took me along and I learned along with them, but it also opened roads for me to take to my own ancestral roots. In so doing, I found fullness on that route, but it is the expansive timeless interconnectedness of humanity and the Divine One which most inspired and satiated me. And continues to do so. I’m pretty sure Moses argued with God. He offered God many reasons why he was not up to the task God had placed upon him. But he found the courage in faith to make the journey. And in so doing, offered a symbolic lesson for everyone.