Randy Weston / Billy Harper Duo at Blue Note New York

RANDY WESTON / BILLY HARPER DUO

The partnership of Randy Weston and saxophonist Billy Harper dates back to the summer of '74. This musical collaboration is based as much on their mutual love of the darker hues of their respective instruments as it is their blues simpatico.

Weston and Harper bonded instantly after playing together in Tangier. "I heard that sound I like," recalls Weston, "When Billy plays the tenor it's like an orchestra - the call & response is always there, I always hear the black church in his playing, he's constantly singing through his horn. As far as why we work well together... it's the magic of that big, black sound he gets. Billy is a great blues player !...

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RANDY WESTON / BILLY HARPER DUO

The partnership of Randy Weston and saxophonist Billy Harper dates back to the summer of '74. This musical collaboration is based as much on their mutual love of the darker hues of their respective instruments as it is their blues simpatico.

Weston and Harper bonded instantly after playing together in Tangier. "I heard that sound I like," recalls Weston, "When Billy plays the tenor it's like an orchestra - the call & response is always there, I always hear the black church in his playing, he's constantly singing through his horn. As far as why we work well together... it's the magic of that big, black sound he gets. Billy is a great blues player !

According to Randy... "Another reason this partnership succeeds is Billy's sound. It comes comes straight out of Africa. He's a Texas-born-tenor-man of Semali ancestral lineage, but it's a universal sound; that cry he gets reaches into your soul. He plays a modern saxophone but it's very poetic. You listen to his solos and it's a complete composition. you hear the whole history of the tenor."

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