“… a virtuoso pianist with outstanding technique plus boundless imagination and enthusiasm..”      --Jazz Journal International (UK)

Jon Weber©Andrea Canter

There are many ingredients to cooking up a successful jazz festival, and every summer Steve Heckler manages to come up with the right recipe for the Twin Cities (Hot Summer) Jazz Festival. One of his perennial ingredients is the always-inventive, encyclopedic sage of the keyboards, Jon Weber. This weekend (June 19-20), in addition to his appearances throughout the festival, Weber joins forces with another festival favorite, young saxophonist Alex Han, to extend the festive music into the late hours at the Artists Quarter in St. Paul.

Jon Weber is a good example of an artist living up to his early potential. As a toddler in Milwaukee playing a toy organ, it was soon apparent that he had both perfect pitch and memory; by age 6 Jon had memorized 2,000 songs from his grandmother’s old piano rolls. His mother recalls, "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, changing the chords every time. 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, Jon 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. In addition to his remarkable chops, Jon Weber is well known for his incredible music knowledge. He’s been the subject of profiles by CNN, CNBC, Black Entertainment TV, Bravo/Arts, National Public Radio, and Voice of America. After appearing on Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz, Weber was commissioned by Warner Brothers to transcribe "Portraits, " a book of Marian's improvised piano solo compositions. Recently Jon has been splitting his time between Chicago and New York, where he has been a regular performer at the 92nd Street Y jazz series.

Alex Han©Andrea Canter

Alex Han is another good example of a child prodigy continuing to grow and mature as he completes his education at Berklee College of Music in Boston while also touring internationally with bassist Marcus Miller and drummer Terri Lynne Carrington. First appearing at age 17 at the 2005 Hot Summer Jazz Festival, and again in 2007, Arizona native Han began alto sax studies at age 8. His talent blossomed quickly, and by age twelve, he was one of two national recipients of the VSA Arts, Young Soloists Award, and was invited by the great Paquito D'Rivera to "sit-in" with at a Jazz at Lincoln Center performance. A year later he shared the stage at a festival in Uruguay with some of the hottest artists in jazz, including Joe Lovano, Kenny Barron, Nicholas Payton and Roy Hargrove. At 14, Alex released his debut recording (Fourteen) and won a Downbeat Student Music Award. At 17, Alex won the Yamaha Young Performing Artists Award for saxophone and was awarded the alto sax chair of the 2005 Monterey Jazz Festival Next Generations Orchestra. Since, he has won additional Downbeat Student Awards, held the alto sax chair for the 2006 Gibson/Baldwin Grammy Jazz Orchestra, won a 2006 ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award, and received the Berklee College of Music Presidential Scholarship. When not on campus, he keeps busy touring with Marcus Miller, Terri Lynne Carrington, fronting his own band and more.

Weber and Han will warm up on Thursday night at the Hat Trick Lounge as part of the Jazz Night Out Club Crawl. They should be volcanic by Saturday night at the AQ!

The Artists Quarter is located at 408 St Peter Street in downtown St. Paul; www.artistsquarter.com  Shows at 9 pm, $10 cover. Paula Berends, vocalist and a real Klondike Kate, opens at 8 pm on Friday. 

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