Alongside Uhuru Kwanza these are two of the chef d'oeuvres in Weston's long and distinguished career, and showcase him as both solo pianist and bandleader. African Cookbook has a great group (tenor sax titan Booker Ervin is on supreme form), and a string of great tunes that shift between the bouncy, skippy blues that Weston inherited from Monk and the driving, hard hitting ‘motherland’ groove that he elicited from his lengthy sojourns in Lagos, Dakar and other cities. With that in mind ‘Niger Mambo’ is a real tour de force, dancing its way from Africa to Latin America by way of a percussive frenzy and brawny, punchy horn breaks that provide an object lesson in how to create a memorable shift of energy in two bars. Nuit Africaine offers an opportunity to hear the beauty of Weston's touch, above all his rhythmic ingenuity, in a fantastically recorded solo set, that features seven originals including the staples ‘Little Niles’ and ‘Blues To Senegal.’ The first piece demonstrates that, for all the power he can generate, Weston also does finesse and subtlety, two qualities that also come to the fore on a swaying reprise of Dizzy's ‘Con Alma’.