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OK, I've got it now, and here's my review:
Randy Weston is back with “Zep Tepi,” his finest record in nearly a decade. Weston has cut down the group, mainly working with a trio, but 2 of the 10 tracks are solo. Long-time associates Alex Blake and Neil Clarke provide bass and African percussion. It would be nice to hear Weston with a regular drummer (most of his records feature traps and African), but Clarke is a fine player who adds rich textures.
Weston is front and center nearly all the time. The CD gets off to a great start with a 13-minute version of “Blue Moses.” It’s intense and mind-blowing. “African Sunrise” (over 11 minutes) follows, and it features the superb qualities that made it the climactic masterpiece of “Spirits of Our Ancestors.” It does lose some of the drama, but this unavoidable when the original version included at least 10 musicians. Then there is “Berkshire Blues,” proof (as if it’s needed!) that Weston may be the finest living blues player in jazz.
It is a very familiar program, with the likes of “The Healers” and “Mystery of Love.” Weston’s famous “High-Fly” also shows up, but it’s certainly an abbreviated version at 2 minutes. Curiously, I’ve still not found a Weston version that deeply satisfies me; there are, of course, many great covers of it. “Portrait of Frank Edward Weston” is taken as a romp and is over in about 4 minutes. I like the momentum of this performance, but it doesn’t have the development and subtlety of the very long version from “Self Portraits.”
Overall, the CD has something of the career summation quality that characterized “Spirits of Our Ancestors,” though clearly on a smaller scale. At 80-years-old, Weston is as masterful as ever at the keyboard. Anyone who has enjoyed Randy Weston’s half-century of distinctive and stirring music will enjoy this CD a great deal.
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