Eberhard Weber Colours - Little Movements (1980)

Second album by Eberhard Weber's Colours collective - third if you count Yellow Fields, as a reissue box set did - and fast becoming my favourite Weber album, possibly overtaking even the more gentle, hushed Fluid Rustle.  After four minutes of atmospheric ambience, the opening Last Stage Of A Long Journey develops into a gorgeous, sedate feature for Rainer Brüninghaus' piano and Charlie Mariano's flute (then Garbarek-like sax).  The twelve-minute Bali also starts with a gentle, wispy drone, before bursting into life with Brüninghaus' repetitive piano figures, and developing in multiple sections.  You can tell it's a Brüninghaus composition; he's well on the way to his own masterpiece Freigeweht with material like this. 

Some more cyclical piano arpeggios introduce A Dark Spell, which develops into a great feature for Mariano to soar freely, especially in the uptempo end section.  The title track starts with an odd clash of sounds in the accordion-like synth and clatter of percussion, held together by Brüninghaus' piano as John Marshall continues to roll around the kit before it all settles into another gorgeous track.  Then 'No Trees?' He Said is a joyous, upbeat closer.  This whole album is a pure delight from start to finish.

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pw: sgtg

Eberhard Weber at SGTG:

Yellow Fields (link also includes Jan Garbarek's Paths, Prints feat. Weber) 

Silent Feet

Fluid Rustle

Ralph Towner's Solstice: Sound & Shadows

Pat Metheny's Watercolors

Eberhard Weber Colours - Silent Feet (1978)

Eberhard Weber's Yellow Fields band (minus Jon Christensen, who presumably had a hundred other ECM sessions to attend) coalesced into Colours in the late 70s.  They produced two albums under this moniker, of which Silent Feet was the first (the other's coming up next week).  John Marshall was now on the drum stool, laying down a neat mid-tempo shuffle for Weber, Charlie Mariano and Rainer Brüninghaus to move around in on the great 18-minute opener, Seriously Deep.  Mariano's solos are a particular standout on this memorable epic of jazz-prog.

The two remaining tracks are 12 minutes apiece, with the title track starting out as a meditative feature for Weber and Brüninghaus, before Marshall kicks it into gear for the album's most joyously upbeat stretch.  Eyes That Can See In The Dark then establishes a suitably nocturnal atmosphere, with subtle percussion and Mariano's wood flute.  After a few minutes of this static ambience, Marshall and Brüninghaus take it into the home stretch, including a gorgeous piano spotlight for the latter and more of Mariano stretching out.  The legendary bassist-composer of course provides the supple joints for the whole body of Colours to move as one.

"...and to the cat he has given silent feet and eyes that can see in the dark"

- Richard Adams, Watership Down, Chapter 6: The Story of the Blessing of El-ahrairah

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Eberhard Weber at SGTG:

Yellow Fields (link also includes Jan Garbarek's Paths, Prints feat. Weber)

Fluid Rustle

Ralph Towner's Solstice: Sound & Shadows

Pat Metheny's Watercolors

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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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)

Pat Metheny - Watercolors (1977)

In early 1977, the 22-year-old Pat Metheny had a lot riding on his forthcoming second album: he'd produced a stunning trio debut with Jaco Pastorius and Bob Moses, making him the rising star to watch on Europe's premier jazz label.  The follow-up would expand his sonic palette by adding keyboards, courtesy of a musician of similar age who he'd met a couple of years back, and would spent the following decades coming back to as part of the evolving Pat Metheny Group.  That group's initial drummer, Danny Gottlieb, came into the picture here too.  With Metheny still lacking his own bassist, one of ECM's established ones sat in, bringing his unique sound: the great Eberhard Weber.

If, as some regard it, Watercolors was the first PMG album in all but name, it was a low-key start.  I've always felt it works just fine in Pat's name only, sitting better with his more intimate solo records like New Chautauqua (check some of the gorgeous 12 & 15-string sounds here) than the more immediate smash hit of the PMG debut.  The music here is mostly quiet and impressionistic, suiting its becalmed, watery art and track titles.  The more upbeat material however does ensure variety in the programme, and Lakes and River Quay in particular do arguably point the way forward to the early PMG sound.  Either way, just another stunningly beautiful early Pat Metheny record among several.

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Eberhard Weber - Fluid Rustle (1979)

Haven't posted an Eberhard Weber solo album yet, so it's long overdue to rectify.  This is my absolute favourite, in which the instantly recognisable upright-electric bassist pared back his unique music to just bass, vibes/marimba (Gary Burton), guitar/balalaika (Bill Frisell), and two vocalists (Norma Winstone and Bonnie Herman) adding wordless magic.

Making his ECM debut after being discovered by Weber on tour, Frisell is tentative and understated here - to a fault, in his own retrospective analysis, but his minimalist volume swells and gentle arpeggios are perfectly placed on this winter's morning walk of an album.  The side-long Quiet Departures starts off with Frisell in this zone, accompanied by Burton, before the bass and voices enter.  By the halfway mark, this pre-dawn chill has started to see some sunlight, as Frisell strums an open chord on the balalaika (with a more energetic lead guitar overdubbed), and the voices set off on a gorgeous melodic progression.

The sunlight continues to burst through on the title track, with Winstone and Herman in full voice as Burton and Weber sparkle all around them, before another subtle, fluid solo from Frisell.  The rest of the album turns colder and more desolate, with a plaintive Burton solo providing the centrepiece of A Pale Smile, and the closing Visible Thoughts ending the day back in the wintry dark as the voices turn into eerie whispers.  A highly, highly recommended standout album in Weber's peerless catalogue.

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Ralph Towner - Solstice: Sound And Shadows (1977)

The last two postings of ECM guitarists both went down well, so here's a third; a third American as well, in Washingtonian Ralph Towner.  Towner's trademark sound, based on chiming 12-string guitars and nylon-string guitars more classical in leaning than jazz, was always going to be a great fit when placed among one of ECM's Nordic crack teams.  So when he was matched up with Jan Garbarek, Eberhard Weber and Jon Christensen for 1975's Solstice, an instant classic was born, and this lesser-known sequel from two years later deserves equal appreciation.

Five fairly lengthy tracks here, giving each player a chance to shine and these rambling, autumnal pieces room to roam.  Distant Hills is the perfect opener, with soft-focus layers of Towner's guitars, stately Garbarek solos, and a subtle underpinning from Weber and Christensen.  For all his guitar genius, it shouldn't be forgotten how good a pianist Towner is as well, and Arion, a definite highlight for me, shows it beautifully.

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