The Brownville Concert Series will present Jon Weber and his show, “From Joplin to Jarrett.”
Jessica Nicholas, The Melbourne Age Newspaper and ABC Radio Australia, said, “Guiding us through 100 years of music in just two hours, Weber interspersed each musical excerpt with insights and anecdotes that revealed a lifetime’s worth of impassioned research.”
It’s sure to be a show you don’t want to miss. He will perform in cabaret on Friday and Saturday, October 4 and 5, at 7:30 p.m. and in cabaret on Sunday, October 6, at 2:00 p.m. Sponsors are Jeffrey Meade and Shannon Stemm, Blake and Julie Hurst, and John and Mary Lauber.
Music reviewer Stephen Holden of The New York Times said, “And Scott Joplin begat Jelly Roll Morton, who begat James P. Johnson, who begat Fats Waller, who begat Earl Hines, and on and on. That is a rough sketch of the jazz piano genealogy described by the pianist Jon Weber in his fascinating and essential show ‘From Joplin to Jarrett: 115 Years of Piano Jazz.’ From an academic perspective, this program was an enlightening music history tutorial, delivered with enthusiasm and wit by a musician with no axes to grind and who is utterly devoid of professorial grandiosity. But because Mr. Weber can play up a storm, it was also a thrilling demonstration of one man’s passionate attachment to his chosen instrument.”
Jon Weber is a New York City and Chicago-based jazz pianist and composer whose compositions and performances have met critical and popular acclaim in many countries around the world. Largely self-taught, Weber has perfect pitch and remarkable melodic recall. He serves as host of Piano Jazz With Jon Weber on NPR.
Weber began playing at a very young age. He lived and performed for many years in Chicago, and currently resides in New York City. He has performed and recorded with a broad range of musicians in the United States, Europe, India, Japan, and Australia.
Weber’s album Jazz Wagon was released in 1993, followed by a live album, Flying Keys, and It’s Never Quite the Same, an album of tunes by composers Jay Livingston and Ray Evans. His most recent album, Simple Complex, features his own compositions. It was released in 2004 with Weber on piano, drummer Mark Walker, Eric Alexander on sax, trumpeters Diego Urcola and Roy Hargrove, bassists Avishai Cohen, Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, Peter Washington and Gary Burton on vibraphone.
All tickets are $25 ($16 for students). To purchase tickets online go to www.brownvilleconcertseries.com or Facebook or call 402-825-3331. The Nebraska Arts Council (www.nebraskaartscouncil.org), a state agency, supports this program through a matching grant funded by the Nebraska Legislature, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.