Best new jazz album in years
musicom123 | Boca Raton, FL | 03/11/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This album has it all. It swings, it entertains, it has amazing rhythm changes. If you are a musician, get this album and listen to it.. you'll be better for it. If you are a jazz fan, you will love the tunes on the album. The label is Second Century Jazz and I have to say, this is a great start to the new century for jazz. This album is a perfect example of that. The Roy Hargrove stuff is especially brilliant. But of course the main man is Jon Weber the composer and piano guy."
A great new album for aficionados and beginners alike
ncstockguy | Raleigh, NC USA | 03/04/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Chicago piano master Jon Weber takes modern jazz to a whole new level with this great album of original tunes. Backed up with the likes of Roy Hargrove, Gary Burton, Eric ALexander and other greats, Weber's piano ranges from the frenzied to the sublime and many points in between. I see there seem to be no audio samples available here yet, but you can listen to some of the tunes at Jon's site http://www.jonwebermusic.com/
I'd particularly recommend "Jolie" and "Triska Deka".
Get this album. If you are a jazz fan, you will most likely love it."
Look to the sky, this your large band future!
Peppino | 09/13/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"With liner notes from producer/bassist/engineer Jon Ovnik providing perfect description of this great CD for we "fratelli musicisti"(fellow musicians),
I would feel wasting your time to talk technicalities of this unbelievable set from a "first team" selection of the "young lions"(Roy Hargrove, Avishai Cohen, Mark Walker)and decorated veteranos (Gary Burton,Neils Pedersen, Paul McCandless) international relative unknown in USA (Deigo Urcola, Jonas Johansen) and Chicago Stalwarts John Mulder , Ruben Alvarez and Kurt Elling
Anyway, Milwaukee (not Chicago) favorite son (I live now in Chicago, I am just "tired" of our northern neighbor to be treated as a stepchild, HAHA..!) Jon Weber has put together yet another twist on the large band concept, more a descendent of the Mingus (or Charles Tolliver/Stanley Cowell?) concept of improvisation as integral PART of the composition, and as "multi-culti" an approach as the famous Mingus "Cumbia-Jazz Fusion" or the later efforts of Don Cherry, filtered thru a healthy strainer of Gil Evans,Duke Pearson , even the legendary Hermeto Pascoal!
Exquisite solo passages temper the harmonic /melodic concept of this Jon Weber, a composer who can make a complex chart sound acessibly sweet, while capping off pianistics fireworks in his solo passages , quite over the moon.
There has been some exceptional sounds coming from the next wave of composers, and it is FAR more adventurous than the initial neo-conservative "repatory company" boredom initiated with the dawn of the Wynton Marsalis Imperialist musical conquest of a few short years(it really has been longer than that, snoozzzzze..).
Guillermo Klein (Argentina) , Maria Schneider, Itibere Zwarg (Brasil), Le Bocal(France), The Italian Instabile Orchestra, and mid -80s forgottens as the Blue Wisp Orchestra, Ernie Wilkins Almost Big Band(US?Denmark) would be some comparable musics to add to your collection AFTER you pick up this disc!
When you are going to wear your hair in a long tonsure, as Jon Weber does, you better be able to back up your "eccentricity", hehehe! And, like his "fashion buddy" Steven Turre, JW nails it!
(Eccentricity is usually a SUBSTITUTE for talent in the pop musics world, but I digress...)
Energy abounds, without substituting harmonic complexity, a beautiful concept of chords, IMO.
A real secret, hope not for long!
100 Stars
"
Track Listings (10) - Disc #1