RANDY WESTON – Four Classic Albums Plus, Vol. 2 (The Modern Art Of Jazz / Piano A La Mode / Little Niles / Live At The Five Spot) AVID

AVID Jazz presents another four classic Randy Weston albums plus, including original liner notes on a finely re-mastered and low priced double CD.
“The Modern Art of Jazz”; “Piano A La Mode” “Little Niles”; “Live at the Five Spot” plus 6 tracks from “Destry Rides Again”
Our first selection in this second volume of Randy Weston classic albums is “The Modern Art of Jazz” . Across eight mainly up tempo tunes on this album you will hear Randy Weston accompanied by five musicians, although they will be heard primarily in the trio format. (Please refer to the original liner notes for further details). Alongside Randy on piano old school chum Cecil Payne plays baritone and alto sax, Ray Copeland on trumpet, Ahmed Abdul-Malik on bass, with Willie Jones and Wilbert Harris sharing the drum seat. Our second selection presents Randy Weston in his favoured trio format where he is joined by regular bassist Peck Morris and “one of the most musical of jazz drummers”, The Modern Jazz Quartet’s Connie Kay on drums. “Piano A La Mode” was recorded in the Spring of 1957. Downbeat gave the album ****1/2 stars with the following quote, “Rarely in the mass of LP’s, pleasant and otherwise, you encounter a genuinely significant one. This is such an LP”. “Little Niles” was recorded in New York in October 1958 and contains a complete collection of original Randy Weston compositions arranged by Melba Liston who also appears on trombone. The album is somewhat of a dedication to Mr Weston’s two children Pamela and Niles, both of whom have a track named for them (indeed Niles has the album named after him!). There is a lovely description of the album by poet Langston Hughes in the original liner notes which is worth quoting here to get you in the listening mood. “Modern tone poems, impressionable pictures, cool tantalizers of the imagination, are these lyrically lovely compositions in sound created by Randy Weston”. “Fabulous Musicianship” are the two key words used to conclude the brief liner notes telling the story of “Live at the Five Spot”. Hardly surprising when you take a look at the line up for this gig! Coleman Hawkins, Roy Haynes, Kenny Dorham, Brock Peters, Clifford Jarvis and Wilbur Little. And what a story it was, with many of the musicians descending on the Five Spot just in time to perform the gig, not to mention arranger Melba Liston sending her arrangements by air mail from her hospital sickbed! Finally we present six tracks adapted by Randy Weston from the Harold Rome musical “Destry Rides Again”.
All four albums plus have been digitally re-mastered.

CD1
1-8: ‘The Modern Art of Jazz’
1. Loose Wig
2. Run Joe
3. A Theme For Teddy
4. In A Little Spanish Town
5. Don’t Blame Me
6. J & K Blues
7. You Needn’t
8. How High The Moon
9-16: ‘Piano A La Mode’
9. Earth Birth
10. Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen
11. Saucer Eyes
12. I Got Rhythm
13. Gingerbread
14. Cocktails For Two
15. Honeysuckle Rose
16. Fe-Double-U Blues
17-18: ‘Little Niles’
17. Earth Birth
18. Little Susan

CD2
1-5: ‘Little Niles’
1. Nice Ice
2. Little Niles
3. Pam’s Waltz
4. Babe’s Blues
5. Let’s Climb A Hill
6-11: ‘Live At The Five Spot’
6. High Fly
7. Beef Blues Stew
8. Where
9. Spot Five Blues
10. Star Crossed Lovers
11. Lisa Lovely
12. We’re Ladies from Destry Rides Again
13. I Know Your Kind from Destry Rides Again
14. Anyone Would Love You from Destry Rides Again
15. Once Knew A Fella from Destry Rides Again
16. That Ring On the Finger from Destry Rides Again
17. I Say Hello from Destry Rides Again