Friday, 28 February 2020

Eberhard Weber - Yellow Fields (1976)

R.I.P. Jon Christensen, 20 March 1943 - 18 Feb 2020

Another sad farewell to an ECM jazz legend - Jon Christensen has died at the age of 76, after playing on hundreds of sessions for artists including Keith Jarrett, Jan Garbarek, Eberhard Weber, Ralph Towner, Terje Rypdal... the list goes on and on.  Here's a couple of albums in tribute, and a list of previous posts that featured Jon.

Christensen's tight, steady drumming was an important feature of Eberhard Weber's second album as band leader.  The September 1975 session that produced Yellow Fields also featured Rainer Bruninghaus on keyboards and Charlie Mariano on reeds, and saw Weber's music simplify a little from the almost progressive rock-like structures of his debut album.  What emerged was a smooth but propulsive jazz fusion with great expressive leads from Mariano, some timelessly cool grooves on the keys from Bruninghaus, and rock solid backing from Weber and Christensen.

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pw: sgtg

Jan Garbarek - Paths, Prints (1982)
Jon Christensen had played with Jan Garbarek since the late 60s, and would continue working with him through the 90s.  He provided the perfect base for this keyboardless December 1981 date, again pairing up with Weber's instantly recognisable bass tone as Garbarek and Bill Frisell dripped across the sonic picture like rain on glass.  I tend to tread carefully into 80s Garbarek and beyond, but this album has aged well and is very much a piece with the classic ECM aesthetic.  Kite Dance and the closer Still are particularly lovely.

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pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG featuring Jon Christensen:
Afric Pepperbird (Garbarek/Rypdal/Andersen/Christensen)
Popofoni (Garbarek/Rypdal/Stenson/Andersen/Christensen etc)
Waves (Rypdal/Mikkelborg/Hovensjø/Christensen)
Solstice: Sound And Shadows (Towner/Garbarek/Weber/Christensen)
Bluish (Stańko/Andersen/Christensen)
The Sea (Bjørnstad/Rypdal/Darling/Christensen)
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5 comments:

  1. rev.b29 February 2020 at 03:03

    Two fine albums, much appreciated

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  2. Fernfrequency5 March 2020 at 11:08

    Jesus Jon Christensen is gone now....Lyle Mays last month! Soon the great ECM musicians will be yesteryear's memories! Great post btw these are classics in the ECM catalog and not to be missed by anyone's ears.

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  3. forestarchitecture7527 March 2020 at 22:14

    SGTG, thank you so much for these two ECM evergreens. I am particularly fond of "Yellow Fields". There was a great review of the album by the late Richard Cook - or was it Brian Morton's - in their first "Penguin Guide to Jazz". I remember it singling out Christensen's "inspirational series of cross-rhythms and accents", describing the Norwegian as "the lightest, nimblest drummer Europe has produced." And rightly so. I hope both his drumming and the unique sound world of this particular 1970s Manfred Eicher production will remain sources of inspiration, for a good long while yet. This NRK live session from Molde the following year is interesting, especially for how it throws light on Eicher's unerring editorial and programming instincts: reigning in the more, erm, discursive tendencies of the musicians he produced, distilling their gold into timeless records ... https://tv.nrk.no/serie/flimra/1976/FBUA07002276/avspiller

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  4. forestarchitecture7527 March 2020 at 22:31

    Oh yeah, PS: that line-up of the Garbarek Group wasn't half bad, either. And here's some 'evidence' of Eicher's contribution in that context also:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWvth7znffM

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