EBERHARD WEBER

The musical content of this dull looking compilation is a great delight to a listener who appreciates the European chamber jazz of the ECM label. The long artist bio here is very detailed and well written, but I'll start by giving some basic information anyway: German double bass maestro Eberhard Weber is among ECM's key artists. In his recording career starting from the early 70's Weber has been both the leader -- sometimes even the sole musician --and a collaborator on albums of other ECM artists (in addition of pop/rock artists such as Kate Bush), and this cd covers both areas.

'Nimbus', taken from guitarist RALPH TOWNER's album Solstice (1974), centers at first on 12-string guitar and features also Jan Garbarek and drummer Jon Christensen. 'The Whopper' (from GARY BURTON's Passengers, 1976) is composed by the featured guitarist Pat Metheny. The bright and laid-back piece contains soli for el.guitar and Burton's vibraharp. Needless to say that Weber's superb bass playing is present on each track. 'Oasis' (PAT METHENY, Watercolors, 1977) is a minor-key tune centering on acoustic guitar.

Weber has composed roughly half of the cd's material. The peaceful title track of his album Fluid Rustle (1979) is mesmerizing, with Burton's vibraharp, Bill Frisell's guitar and wordless singing by Norma Winstone & Bonnie Herman. Along the compilation one hears also elegant piano of Lyle Mays and Rainer Bruninghaus, and breezy soprano sax by Paul McCandless of the band Oregon and Weber's central employer JAN GARBAREK, whose album Wayfarer (1983) is represented by 'Gesture'.

An excellent compilation, recommendable to anyone enjoying thoughtful, calm and richly nuanced music for mainly acoustic instruments, not only for jazz/fusion enthusiasts.

Beautiful and touching and very dynamic insturmental jazzfusion music with some folk and prog elements.

The music is reminiscent to Bundles-era Soft Machine but it stands on its own. Very nice interplay between sax, piano, upright bass and the versatile drumming of John Marshall. The most solos are played by the saxophonist, but the music as a whole provides plenty of space for all involved to give their best and their most.

What touches me the most is the beautiful artwork by Maja Weber. My vinyl-version has an extra insert with more of her beautiful artwork. It really adds to the sensation. Both aural and visual.

I can absolutely recommend this album. Almost all Eberhard's albums are excellent, but to me this album is his best.

A solid followup to The Colours of Chloe finds whispers of the "ECM Jazz" style that Weber would eventually settle into, but the album is still rather wilder and woolier than is typical of the label, combining the fusion chops of the likes of weather report with a sense of playfulness which, whilst not going fully into Canterbury territory, feels like you can potentially see the back garden of Gilgamesh or the Muffins if you found a tall place in the Yellow Fields to look from. You can tell its the real deal 1970s stuff because Rainer Brueninghaus' mellotron is such a signature instrument, particularly in the opening Touch that leads into the wide fusion vistas of Sand-Glass.

All the colors of marbles.

An amazingly balanced 4 track release which is both traditional and yet way out of its time. Few musicians could actually bring on fresh as new alternate routes to these quiet walked Jazz/Fusion roads.

Eberhard Weber's "The Colours of Chloe", 1974, is full of daring surprises.

Track one "More Colours" has a symphonic melodramatic even cinematic quality as it also strips naked to solitary acoustic bass pluckings, as a runaway piano blends in to counterpoint the symphonic flow, which may also serve as a filter of the kind of Jazz/Fusion colors Eberhard Weber is talking about and these are not exactly mainstream ones. 3.5 stars.

Track two "The Colours of Chloe" is, for starters, the perfect blend between some Progressive Electronic elements which fit in with a more traditional Jazz/Fusion styling and its pertinent instumentation without submitting its electronic value but actually enhancing it as its true to the bone Jazz accomplice while the bass guitar provides really good dynamics and more than once one of the many highlights of the song at the time the piano structures the main theme line with colorful splendor and the strings built up the emotional mood. 4.5 stars.

The trumpet marks the melody and rhythm on track 3 "An Evening With Vincent Van Ritz" with complex drum beats building the dynamic tension while the obscure strings' melody monumentally cast a shadow subtly over the final theme's notes. 4 stars

Track 4 "No Motion Picture" the 5 stars track of this release, takes off where its younger Track 2 sibling left. It has the added bonus of reloading previous highlights and mixing them all at once. But above all it beholds a more personal and unique approach to the whole Jazz/Fusion styling.

This track is divided in 3 movements in a strict classical music sense, therefore its overture serves also as its closure.

In the first part the electric keys as the bass guitar's work set the melody lines for the rest of the ensemble to fall in.

The second movement is the acoustic piano's showcase aided by a creative and quiet obscure string/choir work which eventually builds the coda of the composition.

All in all adventurous, original, highly enjoyable and full of intelligent songwriting, devoid of any kind of mainstream cliches usually found in these Jazz/Fusion territories.

****4 PA stars.

For this album Eberhard Weber debuted his short-lived backing band Colours. Saxnan and flute friend Charlie Mariano and keyboard wizard Rainer Brüninghaus had backed Weber on the preceding Yellow Fields; the ensemble was rounded out by John Marshall, who had just left Soft Machine. The blend of talents and backgrounds proves to be an apt one; Marshall, in particular, seems to benefit from working with a fresh new project, the Soft Machine having rather run its course by this point. The sound of the album seems to be solidly rooted in the ECM jazz style that had become Weber's trademark by this point, but the capable performances from all concerned keeps things interesting.

I'm always on the lookout for great intrumental records. I don't care if it's spacemusic, ambient, trance, new age, jazz/fusion, symphonic rock, classical or whatever.

Instrumental music has an enchanting and meditative character. That's why I came across this wonderful piece of fusion/sympho.

Great basswork, piano and synth work combined with cello's, fluegelhorn and heavy drumming. There is a lot going on, sometimes pastoral, quiet, beautiful and sometimes heavy, intricate and almost threatening. It's like watching a movie, with pictures. That's what instrumental music is all about. You can create your own daydreams to the music.

I have to search for more like this, because since discovering the band Uzva, I haven't heard something so great as this masterpiece.

I'm not quite blown away by this one as I was by The Colours of Chloe, I think because by now Eberhard Weber had moved more away from the fusion-ish elements of that album into a more ECM chamber jazz style of almost ambient jazz. But that said, this whole ambient jazz thing works really remarkably well. Weber's double bass sonorously creates an aura of peace around itself which the other performers support with delicate, restrained performances. Not one to put on when you are in the mood for furious excitement, but if you want something a bit more meditative it could well hit the spot nicely.

The Colours of Chloë is an understated thing of musical beauty. It does take some time to fully figure it out, though.

After I have listened to it once or twice, I rated it 4 stars, because I'd found it a pleasantly sounding, well played and listener-friendly album (despite a fairly high degree of musical sophistication). Then I had this strange sensation that I was "missing something", so I felt an urge to go back and play it again .. and again .. a few times.

It's like one of those advent calendars: every day you revisit it , you witness a another little door open, allowing you to discover a new facet, or to come up with a new interpretation.

As with all complex suites, the exact "(sub)genre of the Colours of Chloë is a little hard to define; it's advertised as "fusion", but I think it;s closer to symphonic.

Whichever way, it's a very tasteful, elegant, smoothly flowing and perfectly timed/measured album that doesn't seem to have any visible weak spots. I am a little surprised the Colours of Chloë hasn't attracted broader PA attention, but then again: so much music out there, so little time.

The German bass player Eberhard Weber's second record "The Colours of Chloë" from 1974 is an interesting piece of music. I can't see which musicians who are playing but they seems to be more than one. The cover picture is very artistic with a pink background and a happy family standing on the green.

Jazz rock is quite new for me and I have met both bands I like and dislike.

So, let's enjoy this music. I would be exaggerating if I said it happens a lot here but what is happening is lovely. The best track is the long suite "No motion picture" with a melody line which is very pleasant and you can clearly hear the bass lines are sophisticated. This music over all is not easy achieved and it can be hard if you are used to short songs where it happens things all the time. This is a sophisticated soundscape to travell into. First track "More colours" consists of beautiful cello and not so much jazz and the title track "The Colours of Chloë" has a wobbly interesting sound and builds of a world of new atmospheres. "An evening with Vincent van Ritz" has a lovely trumpet.

When I counted my track ratings my over all review was 3,625 and I will higher it to four stars for a lovely piece of music. The music maybe lacks much melodies, it's my only but. It isn't what others have stated a masterwork but it's a great example of the variety of the progressive scene in the 70s. I will return to this music soon.

With The Colours of Chloë, Eberhard Weber confronts the listener with a curious sound that feels less like jazz-rock fusion and more like some strange breed of ambient jazz which regularly fades into and out of more conventional ECM-ish sounds. The absence of guitar, in particular, distances itself from the bulk of jazz fusion (can you imagine Mahavishnu Orchestra without guitar?), but the pulsating bass lines Eberhard lays down provides a foundation for some downright frenetic playing from the rest of the band. With driving rhythms on the title track reminding me at points of some of the more esoteric moments of the Canterbury scene - it puts me in mind of Rock Bottom by Robert Wyatt in particular, and I've never heard anything which quite sounds like Rock Bottom - it's an intriguing album and a sorely underrated one at that.