Twitter: jonburr Charlie Mingus asked him to sit in on bass at the Villlage Vanguard at the age of sixteen. Tony Bennett critiqued his lyrics. Chet Baker and Stan Getz played his songs. Stephane Grappelli, Hank Jones, Buddy Rich, The Hot Swing Trio and a host of others hired him to play in their bands. Singers love him – Tony Bennett, Barbara Cook, Rita Moreno, Eartha Kitt, and many others have hired him - and now, after learning beside the masters of American music, he’s found his voice as the bandleader/composer/bassist/producer of the Jon Burr Band. Jon’s original songs are “melodic, accessible,” “toe-tappers,” “gorgeous,” and have “the feel of new standards.” Jon is a “technical master*” on the bass whose work inspires those around him. “I’ve found that the bass is a great place to lead a band from,” he says…”you’re always in the music, can give it pulse and direction, and stimulate the others to reach deep in the material. There can tend to be a level of restraint imposed on the music when the leader is a singer or soloist…I run a liberated band, and the only thing I ask is that the others dig in and have fun with the material.” In partnership with his brother Bill, Jon produced 18 of his songs in studio sessions in 2007, and in ‘08 continued in production with another 11 titles in his own studio. The partnership also produced the “Live at Birdland” DVD, featuring the Jon Burr Band in action, performing 15 of the titles “at the highest standards of musical performance.” The studio sessions and the DVD have been packaged into “Just Can’t Wait,” a CD/DVD combo pack, released on the jbQ Media label, and now available at CDBaby, Amazon.com, FilmBaby, and iTunes. The project features the work of Ty Stephens, Hilary Kole, Yaala Ballin, Laurel Massé, and Tyler Burr on vocals; the instrumentalists are Houston Person, Joel Frahm, Anat Cohen, and Mario Cruz on sax; Dominick Farinacci on trumpet; John Hart, Howard Alden, and Yotam Silberstein, guitar; Loston Harris, Jon Davis, and Ted Rosenthal on piano; Jon Burr on bass, Anthony Pinciotti and Dave Gibson on Drums, and Carlos Gomez on percussion. *quote attributions published on website – www.jonburr.com Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.