Complete Recordings: 1958-1960 (DELUXE 3 DISC SET)

''Randy Weston, an esteemed pianist whose music and scholarship advanced the argument now broadly accepted that jazz is, at its core, an African music, died on Saturday at his home in Brooklyn. He was 92.'' New York Times 9/1/2018

Complete Recordings: 1958-1960
DELUXE THREE (3) CD SET.

Weston would mark the turn of the 1950s with what would be two of his finest and most acclaimed works. First came the late 1950's masterpiece ''Little Niles'', the title track of which was named after one of Weston's sons and would become one of his best known tunes, having already featured on a number of his live records. Then followed the groundbreaking ''Uhuru Afrika'', an ambitious combination of jazz and African rhythms with a 24-piece band; this would also mark his first album with trombonist, arranger and long-time collaborator Melba Liston. Outrageously, ''Uhuru Afrika'' would be banned in South Africa in 1964, an ''honor'' shared with the likes of Max Roach's ''We Insist!'' and Lena Horne's ''Here's Lena Now!''. Weston would become increasingly interested in African music as his career developed, traveling there with a U.S. cultural delegation in 1967 and settling permanently in Morocco at the end of the tour. He would run the African Rhythms Club in Tangier until 1972, the same year he produced his most commercially successful album ''Blue Moses'', on which he played exclusively electric keyboard. Over the following decades, Weston maintained a constant flow of new material, including the double album ''The Spirits of Our Ancestors'', a collaboration with Melba Liston which also witnessed appearances from Dizzy Gillespie, Pharaoh Saunders and many local Moroccan musicians. Having now dedicated more than six decades to Jazz, Randy Weston remained active into his 90s. His most recent album, The Roots of the Blues, was released in 2013, and he received the JJA Jazz Awards ''Lifetime Achievement in Jazz'' prize in 2015, just one of a staggering list of accolades that includes a personal honor from King Mohammed VI of Morocco in 2011 for his services towards the local musical heritage.