Other Minds Festival:
OM 8, Concert 3: 03 “Blues for Langston Hughes” & more by Randy Weston & African Rhythms

African Rhythms quintet performs new and classic works by Randy Weston, music which, according to Robin D.G. Kelley, New York Times jazz critic and NYU African Studies professor, "…pushes the African rhythms to the foreground and always tries to work within a framework true to the source, whether it's the West African dance music called highlife or sacred songs from Morocco. These forms fit seamlessly in a jazz context precisely because, in Mr. Weston's words, ‘the music that is called jazz ... for me is really an extension of African culture.'" Hearing African Rhythms is like, "witnessing a joyous, sacred ceremony."

Among other selections this evening from the group's recent repertoire, African Rhythms will perform the world premiere of Randy Weston's "Blues for Langston Hughes," dedicated to the memory of the great America poet on the occasion of his centenary. The work was commissioned by Other Minds with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts. "Amanda Piasecki