The pairing of Weber and Renee is a natural extension of their first meeting about five years ago at the Twin Cities Hot Summer Jazz Festival, now a standing gig for Chicago-based Weber. After hearing her perform, Weber suggested Renee record, and asked to be included. Ultimately this led to the release of her first CD, “Wait for Me” (Summit, 2002).

Both artists have followed a path set very early. Now 21, Renee (her middle name) moved from South Dakota to Minneapolis as a young child, and grew up listening to music and her father’s jazz band. "I don't remember a time not loving music, not singing," she says. Even before starting school, she was singing standards with perfect pitch. She studied voice, piano, and composition throughout her school years in St. Paul, and participated in music programs at Como Park High School and Walker West Music Academy. At 17 she attended a Berklee College of Music summer program in Boston, where she won a songwriting contest. Since graduating from high school, she has continued her music studies, working as a singing server at a downtown restaurant, performing a tribute to Judy Garland, and captivating audiences at such venues as the Artists’ Quarter and Dakota.

Weber had a two decade headstart, but similar prodigous beginnings in the Midwest. As a toddler in Milwaukee playing a toy organ, it was soon apparent that he had both perfect pitch and memory; by age 6 he had memorized 2,000 songs from his grandmother’s old piano rolls. Says his mother: "When he wasn't riding his bike, solving math problems, or memorizing things, he was in the breezeway replaying Dr. Suess and Bugs Bunny records…He'd invent a different arrangement each time he played a tune, improvising, quoting, shuffling the deck. It was always like a game for him." A self-taught musician, Weber took off two years from piano during his teens to develop counterpoint in his left hand by playing guitar. Returning to the piano, Weber and his quintet opened for Pat Metheny, Buddy Rich, Freddie Hubbard, and Stanley Turrentine at major summer jazz festivals. Moving to Chicago in 1987, his career has since sent him around the world and into the recording studio.