Telluride American Songbook Concerts: March 28 – 30

20 Mar Telluride American Songbook Concerts: March 28 – 30

Telluride American Songbook Concerts’ upcoming program features the talents of two award-winning New York performers: vocalist, Marissa Mulder, and pianist/music director, Jon Weber. Concerts/open mic Monday March 28 – Wednesday, March 30, 2016.

Marissa Muldar

“Originally I was just bringing Marissa Mulder and Jon Weber here to perform their famous concert, ‘Tom Waits…in his words,’ on Tuesday, March 29, at Club Red (sponsored by Telluride Ski & Golf Club), but then I remembered that Mayor Sean Murphy, who serves on our Board of Directors, and I had been hoping to start a cabaret/open mic series at Arroyo Telluride. Not opening that series with these two talents would have been a missed opportunity,” said Michael Estwanik, founder, Telluride American Songbook Concerts.

The two stars, Mulder and Weber, are singing and hosting an open mic event at Arroyo Telluride on Monday, March 28, 7 p.m. For this event, there is $5 cover fee at the door and a one-drink minimum.

Jon Weber

“Jon Weber can play any kind of music that is put in front of him, but singers are also welcomed to bring their guitar or any other instruments if they wish,” added Estwanik.

Next up is the acclaimed “Tom Waits…in his words,” sung by the multi-award-winning singer Marissa Mulder. One performance only on Tuesday, March 29, 7 p.m. at Club Red in the Telluride Conference Center, Mountain Village.  Again, the event is sponsored by the Telluride Ski & Golf Club.

Esteemed music critic for the New York Times, Stephen Holden, wrote about Mulder’s show:

“Marissa Mulder’s ‘Tom…in his words – the Songs of Tom Waits’ is far and away the year’s best cabaret show. It is everything this genre of cabaret can be but almost never is.”

Mulder’s show won every award possible in New York City including  the MAC Award (Manhattan Association of Cabarets) for Best Recording of the Year. Tickets are $25 general admission and $50 for a reserved table here.

Watch this video to preview Mulder doing Waits:

“From Scott Joplin to Keith Jarrett…115 Years of Jazz Piano” featuring Jon Weber follows. That concert takes place Wednesday, March 30, 7 p.m., Telluride’s Christ Presbyterian Church. Tickets are $20 and $10 for students under 18 here.

“Mr. Weber’s one-hour show is an enlightening music tutorial, delivered with enthusiasm and wit by a musician with no axes to grind and who is utterly devoid of professional grandiosity. He forms fascinating and unexpected connections between artists of different eras, their development and influences in jazz piano. But because Mr. Weber can play up a storm, it was also a thrilling demonstration of one man’s passionate attachment to his chosen instrument,” raved Holden in the New York Times.

Weber’s program features the work of jazz giants, including Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock, Teddy Wilson, Bud Powell, Nat King Cole, Erroll Garner, Dave Brubeck, Oscar Peterson, and Chick Corea.

“By embracing jazz,” explained Mr. Weber, “America culturally stopped being called ‘Europe Jr.”

More about the tributees and performers:

Tom Waits tributes in Telluride by Marissa Muldar

No doubt about it, Tom Waits has a cult following. He is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor, with a very distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding like “it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car.” Waits incorporates blues, jazz, vaudeville, and even industrial music into his songs, best known through cover versions by more commercial artists: “Jersey Girl,” performed by Bruce Springsteen; “Ol’ ’55,” by the Eagles; “Downtown Train,” by Rod Stewart; and “I Never Talk to Strangers,” by Bette Midler. He won Grammy Awards for two albums Bone Machine and Mule Variations and in 2011, Waits was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was also nominated for an Academy Award for his soundtrack work on “One from the Heart.”

Marissa Mulder, a native of Syracuse, moved to New York City in the fall of 2007 and has gone on to become one of the most successful young cabaret/concert singers in the country. In 2011, Muldar won the coveted MetroStar Talent Award over 60 other singers, judged by a panel of longtime professional singers and critics. She is the winner of the 2013 Julie Wilson and Noel Coward award, presented to her during a performance at Lincoln Center. Her other shows include “All the Way – the songs of Jimmy van Heusen” (“Here’s That Rainy Day,” “Come Fly with Me,” “But Beautiful,” etc.) and “Marilyn in Fragments” – a musical journey of Marilyn Monroe. In New York City, Muldar has performed at Cafe Carlyle, The Algonquin, 54 Below, Birdland, Carnegie Hall, and Joe’s Pub. She has recorded two CDs: Illusions (a collection of standards, both old and new), and Tom…in his words. She was a featured guest and singer on NPR’s Piano Jazz hosted by her frequent accompanist, Jon Weber.

Jon Weber, a native of Milwaukee, is most frequently seen around the world as the accompanist/arranger/music director to any singer lucky enough to hire him.  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.” His CD, Simply Complex, was voted the #1 jazz album of 2004 by The Chicago Tribune, BBC Online, Swiss National Radio, and Sweden Daily News.  Weber is at once an exceptional musician and a gifted historian and storyteller. Above all, the man is a true piano polymath.