A-one and a-two and a-you know what to do...!
Come on down and swing along with the best ragtime, stride, and jazz musicians in town.
Upper Terrace (at the base of the William Cullen Bryant Statue behind the New York Public Library)
***Today's Piano in Bryant Park performer will be Jon Weber, standing in for Bertha Hope.
***Join Bertha for her Piano in Bryant Park performance on July 19.
Bertha Hope
Jazz, Composer, Arranger
Bertha Hope is an American jazz pianist, teacher, composer and arranger who has traveled around the world, and worked with a diverse group of artists, from Dizzy Gillespie and Frank Foster, to Nat Adderley and Philly Joe Jones. In addition to being the leader of the Bertha Hope Trio, she has re-formed the Bertha Hope 5tet featuring Elmo Hope compositions. During the pandemic crisis, she focused on wider recognition of her own compositions and was included in trumpeter Jeremy Pelts first edition of his book Griot, published in 2021. As composer and arranger of several recordings her works include: In Search of Hope and Elmo’s Fire (Steeplechase); Between Two Kings (Minor Records) and her latest on the Reservoir label, Nothin’ But Love. After completing a two-year residency at Minton's Supper Club in Harlem, Bertha began work on a documentary about her life, as well as a new CD. In addition, Seattle-based trio, New Stories, has recorded a CD of Hope-Booker's music entitled, Hope Is In the Air. In 2016 Kennedy Center’s Artistic Jazz Director Jason Moran invited Bertha to perform at Kennedy Center and the Apollo Theatre in a two-city program. She has been honored by the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, and continues to work with her daughter, Monica Meaux Hope, on a music CD for Meaux, Hopes’ Play Healing Fractures. Bertha was married to, and worked with, the late legendary bassist Walter Booker.
Jon Weber
Jazz, TV Score Composer, Radio Host
Jazz pianist Jon Weber has recorded and toured all over the world, winning numerous accolades for performance and composition - and scoring extensively for television since 1987. Gary Burton, Roy Hargrove, Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, and Avishai Cohen have all recorded Jon’s music. His newest critically acclaimed release, Simple Complex, rose to #1. Even The Wall Street Journal sings Jon’s praises: "Most frequently seen across New York as the accompanist to any singer lucky enough to hire him, Jon Weber is best known to the rest of the country as the worthy successor to the late Marian McPartland on the NPR staple Piano Jazz. He's at once an exceptional musician as well as a gifted historian and storyteller, and, above all, a true piano polymath. Playing and talking, Mr. Weber takes us through a century of history, making it crystal clear what Fats Waller, Teddy Wilson, Bud Powell, Nat King Cole, Erroll Garner, Dave Brubeck, Oscar Peterson and the other figures on jazz piano's Mount Rushmore. Jon lives in New York City and hosts NPR's Piano Jazz Rising Stars, after frequently serving as guest host for Marian McPartland on NPR's Piano Jazz.
Thank you for the music!
Many thanks to Sam Ash Music Stores for their support through the years.
