Eberhard Weber & Colours - T. On a White Horse
Vic Vitreous here, with a sweet b'day tribute to a legend of the low end.
I've posted shows that feature him on the bass, but I've never covered him specifically so today is the day.
Probably the most respected bassist ever to be born in Germany, he began recording in Stuttgart in the mid 1960s.
By 1973 he had released his first album under his own name, and eventually formed a band, called Colours, of rotating compatriots to play his unique and evocative compositions.
As the 1970s progressed into the 1980s, he became one of the stalwarts -- and best selling artists -- aboard Manfred Eicher's incredibly seminal ECM label.
Known for his liquid, elastically phrased and melancholic tone on his instrument, his tunes straddle a territory somewhere between Chamber Jazz and funky Jazz-Rock, with most of his songs featuring prominent elements of both across a tapestry of sometime spare, sometimes lush accompaniment.
Is there such a thing as soothing Fusion? If there is, then Eberhard Weber -- born this day in 1940 -- is one of its most satisfying practitioners.
He's played with a whole galaxy of stars in a whole host of musical contexts, from Barbara Thompson's tremendous electric ensemble Paraphernalia to guesting on some of Kate Bush's most beloved LPs, such as The Dreaming.
He unfortunately suffered a debilitating stroke -- are there strokes that aren't? -- in 2007 and had to retire from active duty.
In 2021, a composition dedicated to him by one of his most frequent collaborators -- the late Lyle Mays, whom I'll get on here someday because I have shows of his on his own, out of his usual Pat Metheny Group context and playing his own stuff, and they are amazing -- was released and won the Grammy for Best Instrumental, if you can believe that.
So yes, Eberhard Weber -- still alive and 85 today -- is a Grammy winner.
I wonder how many ECM artists have won Grammys. Or is it Grammies? Or Grannies? Never mind, here are some excellent concerts to celebrate the great Eberhard Weber's big day.
Eberhard Weber & Colours
Nachtmusik im WDR
WDR Studios
Köln, Germany
2.5.1977
01 Eyes That Can See In the Dark/band introductions
02 Sandglass
03 Chicken Chicane
04 T. On a White Horse
05 Yellow Fields
06 Touch
Total time: 1:13:57
Eberhard Weber - bass
Charlie Mariano - soprano saxophone, flute & nagaswaram
Rainer Brüninghaus - keyboards
Danny Gottlieb - drums
sounds like a master reel of the pre-broadcast tape, from the WDR archives, of the complete concert
spectral analysis goes lossless past 22 kHz
edited, retracked & remastered by EN, January 2025
440 MB FLAC/link below
440 MB FLAC/link below
Eberhard Weber & Old Friends
33rd Internationale Jazzwoche
Wackerhalle
Burghausen, Germany
4.19.2002
01 Suggestion
02 Crosstalk
03 Wendekreis des Steinbocks
04 Horizons
05 Yellow Cab
06 Transtanz
07 Und so weiter (And So On)
Total time: 1:38:21
disc break goes after Track 03
Eberhard Weber - bass
Wolfgang Haffner - drums
Jiggs Whigham - trombone
Klaus Doldinger - tenor saxophone
Manfred Schoof - trumpet & flugelhorn
Wolfgang Dauner - piano
384/48k audio from a PAL DVD of a German satellite TV broadcast
extracted, converted to 16/44 CD Audio, repaired, tracked, edited & remastered by EN, January 2025
601 MB FLAC/direct link to both shows
I shall return in 48 with more magisterial mayhem -- there may or may not be Prog Rock -- but don't miss out on bass brahmin Eberhard Weber here, or you'll fail your final exam in Low End Theory, and we can't have that!--J.
