Jon Weber to Kick Off Harris Center Piano Jazz Series, 1/23-26

Jon Weber, a spectacular solo pianist, whose brilliantly crafted spontaneous orchestrations easily place him in the rarefied company of today's elite jazz musicians, has been praised by All About Jazz as " a virtuoso - pure and simple." Harris Center for the Arts will serve as the venue for Mr. Weber as he presents From Joplin to Jarrett: 100 Years of Piano Jazz in Folsom beginning January 23rd.

Joplin to Jarret serves as a concise history of jazz piano with an emphasis on the earlier composers from the first half of the 20th Century. Over 100 years of music interspersed with musical excerpts with Weber's insights and anecdotes reveal a lifetime's worth of impassioned research. His extraordinary facility for recall and analysis allow him to form fascinating and unexpected connections between artists of different eras, their development and influences in jazz piano.

Jon Weber - From Joplin to Jarrett: 100 Years of Piano Jazz will be performed on Thursday, January 23, 2014; 7:30 pm, Friday, January 24, 2014; 7:30 pm, added performance Saturday, January 25, 2014; 7:30 pm and Sunday, January 26, 2014; 2:00 pm. Tickets are priced at $29-$39, Students with ID $12. Tickets are available online at www.harriscenter.net or from Harris Center Ticket Office at 916-608-6888 from 10 am to 6 pm, Monday through Saturday, and two hours before show time. Parking is included in the price of the ticket. Harris Center is located on the west side of Folsom Lake College campus in Folsom, CA, facing East Bidwell Street.

Jazz pianist Jon Weber has recorded and toured all over the world, winning numerous honors for performance and composition - scoring extensively for television since 1987. Gary Burton, Roy Hargrove, Niels-Henning, Ørsted Pedersen and Avishai Cohen have all recorded Jon's music, and his newest critically-acclaimed release, Simple Complex, rose to #1. "Brilliant," acclaims the New York Times.

Weber fell in love with jazz music at age three, listening to his father's records and mimicking them on a toy organ. When he was five, his grandmother gave him her old pianola, along with 2000 piano rolls. By the time he was six, he had learned all 2000 tunes. Now Weber has a storehouse of more than 20000 tunes at his disposal.

Weber shared some of his early memories that helped prepare him for his current success. "When I was a child, my father invented simplified versions of Scott Joplin rags for me to play on the piano. As I grew older, I started struggling with the original versions, replete with complex syncopation, double octave stretches and break-­?neck tempos. Several decades later, I'm still wrestling with those rags. It takes an enormous amount of skill to play them well-­? to give each note the clarity and weight it deserves, and maintain the beat with precision at any speed."

By age 19, Jon's jazz quintet had opened up for Pat Metheny, Buddy Rich, Freddie Hubbard, and Stanley Turrentine. Now a favorite at New York's 92nd Street "Y" jazz series, performing piano duos with Dick Hyman, Cyrus Chestnut, and Bill Charlap, Jon Weber-a true original-is rapidly emerging as a singular personality in jazz. CNN, BET, CNBC, Bravo Arts, NPR, Voice of America, Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street Y, Birdland, The Blue Note, Lincoln Center, Sirius Jazz Radio and the BBC have profiled Jon Weber's unique musical depth and vast knowledge of his craft. UK's Jazz Journal International writes; "Jon Weber is a virtuoso pianist with outstanding technique plus boundless imagination and enthusiasm who is bound to make a big impression on the international jazz scene."

Test and expand your Broadway knowledge with our new game - The Broadway Match-Up! How well do you know your Broadway casting trivia?	Play the Daily Game, explore current shows, and delve into past decades like the 2000s, 80s, and the Golden Age. Challenge your friends and see where you rank!
How well do you know your Tony Awards history? Take our never-ending quiz of nominations and winner history and challenge your friends.	Can you beat your friends? Play today’s daily Broadway word game, featuring a new theatrically inspired word or phrase every day!