YELLOW FIELDS

Anyone familiar with ECM Records knows they are all about class, and here's another excellent example. Eberhard Weber is a German bass player who has played with so many greats over the years including Jan Garbarek, Volker Kriegel and the German band ET CETERA. Pat Metheny is a big fan of Eberhard's playing as well. We also get Jon Christensen from Norway on drums and he's also played with the best including Terje Rypdal, Miroslav Vitous, Ralph Towner and so many more. We have saxophonist Charlie Mariano and keyboardist Rainer Bruninghaus to round out the lineup. I almost feel like I should have a small section in my collection for ECM released albums as they all are so professional and classy. Makes me feel like I should be drinking wine or doing something snooty. Not (haha).

"Touch" opens with piano,drums and bass standing out in this laid back affair. The sax joins in and this is all so intricate with the sax playing in a relaxed manner over top. "Sand-Glass" is quiet to start with a beat. Sax after 1 1/2 minutes. Piano before 4 minutes but it's brief. We then get one of those strange sounding Indian horn instruments before 5 1/2 minutes. The piano is back out front before 7 1/2 minutes then sax again. Piano leads around 9 minutes.

"Yellow Fields" picks up before 2 minutes to a bright sound. Gotta love the fender rhodes that follows as it picks up even more. I like the contrasts in this one. Great tune ! "Left Lane" opens with piano, bass and a beat. Sax before 3 minutes then we get a calm a minute later. The piano then starts to lead. It picks up at 8 minutes with prominant bass.The sax leads then the piano takes a turn before 10 1/2 minutes. Sax is back around 12 minutes.

Beautiful cover art on this one from Maja Weber. A classy 4 stars.