From Downbeat September 2004

JON WEBER:
Pure Simplicity

Jon Weber thumps his chest with his hands, grooving to himself. "Walla-walla-washington, walla-walla-walla, walla-walla-washington," the tall, pony-tailed pianist half sings, demonstrating the intrinsic simplicity of one of the many complex charts from his new CD, Simple Complex (2ndCenturyJazz Records).

Long admired for his encyclopedic knowledge of songs, the 42-year old Weber has taken a giant stride forward with the release of Simple Complex, which features 10 of his own sophisticated but accessible compositions. The material - executed by an all-star cast that includes Roy Hargrove, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Gary Burton, Peter Washington, Diego Urcola and Eric Alexander - was written when Weber was discovering jazz growing up in Milwaukee. It just took a couple of decades for Weber to muster the cash and courage to take on such a project.

He produces a lead sheet for the CD's title track, which is based on the changes to "Giant Steps" - only it's written in 7/4 and modulates to all 12 major keys. This is the kind of thing I adore," says Weber - a self-taught musician who never took a piano lesson - who's based in Chicago and has a long-standing lounge gig at the Four Seasons Hotel. "It's not that hard at all. It's just one of those things that's done by feel. I'll be walking down the street or riding my bike, and I'll come up with something new. When I get home and scribble it out, I realize that it's in 7 or 13. But it always feels natural, like human motion."

Simple Complex took on a life of its own when Weber rediscovered his old charts, which were kept in a large folder in his basement. The idea for the project started to take shape when he saw Pedersen play for the first time during a festival performance in Denmark. "I thought Niels would sound so good on "Drastic Steps," Weber said, referring to one of the CD's burners. "I walked up to him and said I wanted to book him for a session." A month later, Weber flew back to Denmark and recorded three tunes with Pedersen.

The next step was for Weber to call Roy Hargrove and ask him to play flugelhorn on the ballad "No More Words." He remembers: "I played it for Roy and he said, 'That's a lot of changes, man.' So I said, 'That's why I called you.' He said, 'It's high for flügel,' and again I said, 'That's why I called you.' And he did it. Then I was obsessed, so I contacted Gary Burton and started calling some of my regular cats to record here in Chicago."

Weber worked out a significant amount of material with his quintet at a festival in Melbourne, Australia. Then, after four group rehearsals, he finished the CD in two more sessions in Chicago. The guys studied the charts," Weber said. Eric said they were the hardest charts he's ever seen in his life. And he nailed it. They all nailed it."
----- Ed Enright