Encore Eberhard Weber

• 1 Frankfurt 02:47
• 2 Konstanz 03:16
• 3 Cambridge 04:16
• 4 Rankweil 04:14
• 5 Langenhagen 03:53
• 6 Granada 02:57
• 7 Sevilla 04:30
• 8 London 03:00
• 9 Klagenfurt 03:41
• 10 Bradford 03:54
• 11 Edinburgh 02:05
• 12 Hannover 03:23
• 13 Pamplona 03:17
• Total Runtime 45:13

Info for Encore

„Encore“ is a companion volume to 'Résumé' (3709457), Eberhard Weber's widely-praised solo album released in 2012. Here he returns to the many live recordings of his tenure with the Jan Garbarek Group, isolating his unique electric bass solos and reworking them into new pieces with the addition of his own keyboard parts.

'I became what you might call a composer of New Music,' says Weber, 'with the proviso that I make use of old things.' This time he has a special guest in veteran Dutch flugelhorn player Ack van Rooyen, who played on Weber's ECM leader debut 'The Colours of Chloë' (8333312), recorded in 1973. Van Rooyen now adds his own subtle colours to Weber's contemporary sound-montages. The bass solos were recorded between 1990 and 2007 in thirteen European cities from Edinburgh to Seville, and the music was mixed and edited at Studios La Buissonne in the South of France in November 2014.

The process of remoulding solos from the past to make music in the present is an unconventional one but its potential was evident already on 'Résumé'. In Jazz Journal Michael Tucker described that disc as 'music of dark and deep yet also rhythmically engaging, at times even playful substance. Featuring judicious use of digital delay and loops, and with diversely unfolding and layered pizzicato and arco motifs offering what registers throughout as mythopoetically-charged melody, the meta-music that is 'Résumé' is perhaps the most thoroughly arresting of all the albums Weber has made.' 'Encore' - issued in Eberhard Weber's 75th year - carries its momentum forward.

Eberhard Weber, electric double bass, keyboards
Ack Van Rooyen, flugelhorn

Eberhard Weber
was born in 1940 in Stuttgart, Germany. The son of a music teacher, Weber received a classical training, which influenced his later attitude to composition and musical structure.

Paul Olson (allaboutjazz.com) called Weber’s ECM debut album The Colours of Chloë (1973) “a near-perfect album” by “an artist whose creative vision seemed completely mature”. It is often cited as an early instance of “European chamber jazz” and thus of an “emancipation” from a US mainstream. Nevertheless, American musicians were intrigued by Weber’s work and especially his expressive use of customized five-string electric upright bass, his instrument of choice since 1974. In his first decade with ECM, Weber played with Gary Burton’s band as well as guitarists Pat Metheny and Mick Goodrick (Ring, 1974, and Passengers, 1976); the association with the great vibraphonist was revived in 2005 on Stages of a Long Journey. Weber also played with Ralph Towner (Solstice, 1974, and Sound and Shadows, 1977) and on Metheny’s Watercolors (1977).

His popular band, Colours showcased saxophonist Charlie Mariano (Yellow Fields, 1975, Silent Feet, 1977, Little Movements, 1980). Guitarist Bill Frisell, pianist Lyle Mays and oboist Paul McCandless have also made contributions to Weber discs. From 1978, Weber made his work with Jan Garbarek a priority; “we have an ideal musical sensitivity together”, Weber has said. He toured the globe with nine incarnations of the Garbarek Group and appeared on a dozen albums with the Norwegian saxophonist.

In 2007 Weber suffered a severe stroke which put an end to his playing career, though not his musical activities. Weber's most recent albums, Résumé (2012) and Encore (2015) cleverly deploy recorded solos from his performances with the Garbarek Group, overdubbed with keyboards/treatments by Weber, and contributions from Garbarek (saxophones, flute), Ack Van Rooyen (flugelhorn) and Michael DiPasqua (percussion). Hommage à Eberhard Weber (2015) brings together an all-star line-up of Weber’s friends and collaborators in a unique programme of Weber compositions, incorporating taped material and an extended homage by Pat Metheny. In his liner notes, the guitarist writes of his sense of Weber from the first being “an individual who had a visionary sense of what music could be, totally of his own design”.

Booklet for Encore