Jon Weber will captivate you. I promise. He’s a magical piano player with a scary-huge repertoire. I believe him when he says he knows 20,168 songs. He counted.
Besides that, Weber is a genuine international performing star. And it is Chicago’s blessed good fortune that we have him in our midst.
He plays Sunday through Thursday evenings at the Four Seasons Hotel (5:30 to 11:30 p.m.). Spend the evening or drop by for only a tune or two. You’ll leave humming, dancing or both.
Ever since I heard him play “Easter Parade” for a Baby Gap ad, I can’t get that tune out of my head. Lurching through snow and slush, I’m hearing, “In your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it. . . .”
In short, even ordinary songs become extraordinary when Weber starts playing. And great songs just glitter and glow.
Weber, 36, is the most famous American musician in Estonia. When he played there not long ago, he was the second item on the national news (behind some snorey story about world economics). In Iceland, Weber’s fans stop him on the street. As well they should. The Icelandic national anthem is one of the cuts on his first CD, “Jazz Wagon.”
Last year he played four dates in Australia and his ferocious talent even got him a private audience with the president of Swaziland. (A long story. Please ask.)
His new CD on Switzerland’s Jazz Connoisseur label should be in the stores right about now. Weber will be at the Red Sea Jazz Festival next summer in Tel Aviv but if you can’t make it there–or to Iceland, Estonia or one of his other faraway gigs, the Red Sea Festival’s Dan Gottfried will be playing piano with Weber at the Green Mill on Feb. 1.
Weber is a big man (6 foot 6) with a whopping musical gift, a huge heart and unbounded energy.
And one other thing: He’s the only man I’ve ever met who looks good in a ponytail. You gotta catch his act. You’ll keep going back.
