Roscoe Weathers has been described as an artist who has never received enough recognition for the music he produced! His compositions, orientated around jazz, escaped the attention of most labels in the 60’s, leaving Weathers to release much of his material himself. Overlooked by all but the tiniest of record labels, this somewhat underground artist issued only one album and a handful of singles throughout the early 60’s.
A multi-instrumentalist, Weathers mainly led on the flute in his recordings, his styles ranging from laid-back jazz to percussion-driven Afro-Latin fusions! Throughout the 1960’s he spent much of his time as a sideman in smoky clubs, playing anywhere from Memphis to Seattle; eventually settling in L.A. He recorded his own music as well as playing with other artists throughout the whole of the 1960’s, but never found the slightest shred of commercial acclaim, nor the success that comes with it.
Last year London’s Jazzman Records reissued a selection of Weathers music, stating how: “..we can lay claim to be the first outside label to release any of his music since the early 1960s. That’s sixty years of being overlooked by the record industry, so we are delighted to release this first full length album of his music in a first attempt at righting that historic wrong.”
The aptly titled, I’ll Remember was thus released, featuring a selection of these (otherwise forgotten) works, alongside some background and biographical details. It seems insane when you listen to this to think that Weathers was never snatched up by a label and how he somehow slipped through all those nets!? I’m not the biggest fan of all jazz, but these tunes offer so much more! The Latin influence (yum!), the heavy percussive elements (of course a surefire hit with me) and the delicate scatterings of flute and other intriguing instrumentation, whilst hints of exotica unfold throughout! This is a journey into should have been a jazz icon! Thanks to Jazzman Records, however, we can now discover and savour these sounds!!
Echoes was the track that introduced me to this artist, but the whole album is a delight! I urge you to take a listen if you’ve a taste for jazzy/exotic/percussive instrumental adventures!
Listen above and check out/purchase I’ll Remember from here.
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