''Highlife'' (full title ''Music from the New African Nations featuring the Highlife'') is an album by American jazz pianist

Randy Weston Randolph Edward "Randy" Weston (April 6, 1926 – September 1, 2018) was an American jazz pianist and composer whose creativity was inspired by his ancestral African connection. Weston's piano style owed much to Duke Ellington and Thelonious ...

recorded in 1963 and originally released on the

Colpix Colpix Records was the first recording company for Columbia Pictures–Screen Gems. Colpix got its name from combining Columbia (Col) and Pictures (Pix). CBS, which owned Columbia Records, then sued Columbia Pictures for trademark infringement o ...

label. Weston had traveled to Africa for the first time in 1961 for a series of concerts in

Lagos, Nigeria Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...

, sponsored by the

American Society of African Culture The American Society of African Culture (AMSAC) was an organization of African-American writers, artists, and scholars. The society was founded as a result of the Congress of Negro Writers and Artists in 1956 based on the idea of the French '' :f ...

, and the album is inspired by the music of the African continent, in particular the

highlife Highlife is a music genre that started in present-day Ghana in the 19th century, during its history as a colony of the British Empire and through its trade routes in coastal areas. It describes multiple local fusions of African metre and wester ...

genre of West Africa.''Highlife'' liner notes
Randy Weston discography, accessed June 20, 2016.

Reception

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

awarded the album 5 stars, with its reviewer Scott Yanow stating: "Highly recommended, these sessions are among the recorded highpoints of Randy Weston's productive career."Yanow, S
Allmusic Review
accessed August 15, 2012.

Track listing

''All compositions by Randy Weston except as indicated # "Caban Bamboo Highlife" - 2:46 # "Niger Mambo" ( Bobby Benson) - 5:03 # "Zulu" - 4:42 # "In Memory Of" - 7:46 # "Congolese Children" - 2:34 # "Blues to Africa" - 6:23 # "Mystery of Love" (

Guy Warren Guy Warren of Ghana, also known as Kofi Ghanaba (4 May 1923 – 22 December 2008), was a Ghanaian musician, best known as the inventor of Afro-jazz — "the reuniting of African-American jazz with its African roots" — and as a member of The T ...

) - 7:41

Personnel

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

* Ray Copeland -

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

, flugelhorn *

Jimmy Cleveland James Milton Cleveland (May 3, 1926 – August 23, 2008) was an American jazz trombonist born in Wartrace, Tennessee.

, Quentin Jackson -

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

Julius Watkins Julius Watkins (October 10, 1921 – April 4, 1977) was an American jazz musician who played French horn. Described by AllMusic as "virtually the father of the jazz French horn", Watkins won the ''Down Beat'' critics poll in 1960 and 1961 for M ...

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

* Aaron Bell -

tuba The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the ne ...

Budd Johnson Albert J. "Budd" Johnson III (December 14, 1910 – October 20, 1984) was an American jazz saxophonist and clarinetist who worked extensively with, among others, Ben Webster, Benny Goodman, Big Joe Turner, Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke ...

- soprano saxophone,

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while ...

* Booker Ervin - tenor saxophone *

Peck Morrison John A. "Peck" Morrison (September 11, 1919 – February 25, 1988) was an American jazz bassist. Morrison was classically trained, and was competent on trumpet and percussion in addition to bass. He played in military bands in Italy during World ...

- bass * Charlie Persip - drums *

Frankie Dunlop Francis Dunlop (December 6, 1928 – July 7, 2014) was an American jazz drummer. Dunlop, born in Buffalo, New York, grew up in a musical family and began playing guitar at age nine and drums at ten. He was playing professionally by age 16 and re ...

- drums,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

*Archie Lee - congas, percussion *George Young - percussion *

Melba Liston Melba Doretta Liston (January 13, 1926 – April 23, 1999) was an American jazz trombonist, arranger, and composer. Other than those playing in all-female bands she was the first woman trombonist to play in big bands during the 1940s and 1960s, ...

- arranger

References

{{Authority control Randy Weston albums 1963 albums Colpix Records albums Albums arranged by Melba Liston