THE COLOURS OF CHLOË

THE COLOURS OF CHLOE is, without any doubt, Eberhard Weber's most visionary album. Strange to think this was Weber's first album for the ECM label, and he never again came up with anything so idiosyncratic.

Just look at that unconventional line-up. Weber himself plays a leading role on custom-built double bass (now sounding vaguely eastern, now powerfully rhythmical, now singing out freely), on cello and even ocarina. (The mournful sound of the latter plays an important role in the album's tour-de-force, the nineteen-and-a-half-minute "No Motion Picture".) Weber's old friend Rainer Brüninghaus plays keyboards and provides "No Motion Picture"'s whirling, repetitive, somewhat TUBULAR-BELLS-like themes on synths and multi-tracked electric pianos. Brüninghaus also plays some of the most limpid acoustic piano solos recorded in 1973! His performance contrasts beautifully with the massed forces of the cellos of the Südfunk Orchestra, Stuttgart, which lend the album some of its dreamiest passages. Two drummers appear on the album, and there's also Ack Van Rooyen on fluegelhorn, delivering a highly dramatic break on the magnificent title track.

If THE COLOURS OF CHLOE is anything, I suppose you could call it truly symphonic 1970s jazz, but without a trace of empy virtuosity or bombast. And unlike certain other ECM albums, the music is fascinating from start to finish. It never breaks down, and this is due, to a large extent, to Weber's knack for writing and arranging unforgettable and wonderfully mysterious melodies.

It comes as no surprise that the eight-minute title track was covered by Gary Burton on one of his own masterpieces, the 1974 album RING, which features Burton himself on vibes, Bob Moses on drums, Weber AND Steve Swallow on bass, with Mick Goodrick PLUS Pat Metheny on guitars, all playing at the same time. THE COLOURS OF CHLOE as a whole made a strong impression on the then twenty-year old Metheny, since its influence (both melodically and structurally) can clearly be heard on Metheny's most ambitious album, THE WAY UP, where Eberhard Weber is explicitly thanked in the liner notes.

I cannot call THE COLOURS OF CHLOE 'a masterpiece of progressive rock' per se, but it is definitely one of the masterpieces of European jazz and of 'progressive music' in general. If you like intelligent, imaginative instrumental music, don't hesitate to get a copy! You'll enjoy it for the rest of your life.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Eberhard Weber's father was a classically trained cellist, making a living that way. He started to teach his son Eberhard how to play the cello at six years of age, but much later when the high school band needed a bass player, he took up that instrument as a teenager. The man has absolute command of these two instruments, and he went as far as customizing his bass to be both acoustic and electric. You guys know I love the connections that musicians have with each other, and with Eberhard I always connect him with Wolfgang Dauner. They formed ET CETERA in the mid sixties, and by the time Weber released "The Colours Of Chloe", his first for the ECM label, ten years had passed.

The lineup on this album is a testimony to Weber's talent and influence. Another musician besides Dauner who has been with Eberhard a lot, is keyboardist Rainer Bruninghaus. Before I get to him I also want to mention Jan Garbarek who took Weber under his wing and he has been like Weber's boss for decades(haha). But Bruninghaus on keyboards is huge. He was part of the Kraut/Jazz band called EILIFF who released two adventerous albums in the early seventies. This band had two very serious musicians in Rainer and guitarist Houschang Nejadepour.

We get drummer Peter Giger who I know from DRUM CIRCUS. We also get the SUDFUNK SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA which consists of cellos. A female choir singer, and how about Ack Van Rooyen on flugelhorn! The man was part of the UNITED JAZZ + ROCK ENSEMBLE in the second half of the seventies that Eberhard would be part of along with Dauner, and a bunch of legends really. And while this record has ECM written all over it, this is so much more than that. This album crosses some lines in my opinion when it comes to that label. And because Eberhard dared to let his hair down, sort to speak, we get my favourite solo album right here, from this talented man.

At this point I also want to mention an album called "The Call" from 1969 that Weber was part of with Freddie Braceful, Mal Waldron and Jimmy Jackson, which I like more than "The Colours Of Chloe". Eberhard's wife Maja did the cover art here by the way. So we get four tracks worth 40 minutes. The shorter pieces are more in line with the ECM sounds for the most part but that 20 minute side long suite is a statement. I just find this recording to be so brilliant the way he has it all set up.

The symphony orchestra is almost distant sounding much of the time, creating a layer, atmosphere if you will. The female vocalist with the wordless singing is such a highlight. Then Rainer on keys adds so much. The electronics, the electric piano, along with the more sedate ECM sounds of acoustic piano, reveal the two sides of this album. This is far more adventerous than most stuff I've heard on this record label besides Terje Rydal.

So after the first two tracks "More Colours" and "The Colours Of Chloe" which are very ECM sounding we get "An Evening With Vincent van Ritz". The final track of side one is where they break out of the sedate with electric piano and flugelhorn bringing Fusion to mind. Orchestral sounds and female vocals too. "No Motion Picture" at 20 minutes has repeated themes, and how about the electronics raining down at times. That bass is in your face here as well. There's that celestial atmosphere 13 minutes in then back to repeated themes.

This is an absolute classic that I feel breaks some rules along the way, which doesn't surprise me with Eberhard Weber at the controls.

After a decade of learning and growing under the guidance and support of artists like Wolfgang Dauner, George Gruntz, Baden Powell, Art Van Damme, Stéphane Grappelli, Rolf Kuhn, Michael Naura, and Volker Kriegel, one of the jazz's most unique, most creative bass players in history finally strikes out on his own. Praise be ECM Records, Eberhard's new and now-forever label.

1. "More Colours" (6:40) the minimalist orchestrated music with Eberhard's inventive "piccolo" bass techniques and Rainer Brünignhaus' piano ministrations, all of which they would perfect for Side One of The Following Morning but here only sound weird, separated, and not very melodic or pretty. (13.125/10) 2. "The Colours of Chloë" (7:45) cello, piano, and sounding like the inspiration for Brian Eno's first two or three Ambient Music records--unitl 1:40, that is, when cymbals, bass, and synth take over with a truly Jazz-Rock Fusion motif (despite having very little rhythm base--future Pat Metheny-like stuff). Then, at the end of the third minute piano and, later, bowed strings, provide a floating fabric for Eberhard to play his echoing double bass. Beautiful stuff that turns jazzier when Eberhard and Ralf Hübner's drums start playing a more traditional jazz rhythm track for Rainer to really go to work with some stunning modern jazz piano playing. A very cool and innovative song--both in structure and sound palette execution. Manfred Eicher's touch definitely counts for something, as well. (14/15)

3. "An Evening with Vincent van Ritz" (5:46) two minutes of moody bass and mid-range strings taking us through a repeated slow progression of four chords, over and over, as Gisela Schäube sings choir-like wordless vocalese over(within) the weave--until the two-minute mark when a dynamic jazz combo of Latin-infused drumming, wild- walking bass, and chord-hopping Fender Rhodes sets a motif up beneath the trumpet soloing of Ack van Rooyen. Though coordinated and together, each of the four musicians are quite adventurous and expressive in their performances, start to finish, but then at 5:08 we're cut back into the opening motif as if the middle jazz combo section never happened. Weird. One song inside another. (8.875/10)

4. "No Motion Picture" (19:56) opens as if Eberhard and Rainer had been a part of Terry Riley's 1960s experimental adventures into what we now call Minimalism. A minute is given to each round of the presented motif and then it's like they just push the reset/restart button--until 2:30 when everybody takes a sudden left turn into a plodding Fender Rhodes chord progression beneath which Peter Giger provides wave-like cymbal crashes and some kind of flute/recorder sound (it's Eberhard's ocarina!) generates an airy near-droning lead melody up top. At 3:45 Eberhard is let out of his cage while the others stop to rest (and observe) as the composer explores his new freedom over the fretboard of his double bass. What did Eberhard use to create this distinctive, perhaps unique, sound that now becomes his signature? By the end of the sixth minute we've shifted back to some variations on the opening two themes (the Terry Riley minimalism and the plodding ocarina motif). Nice, engaging slow descending chord progressions carry this forward until Rainer's Fender Rhodes (and the ECM engineers) sweetly bridges us into a motif with piano and electric piano making harmonizing arpeggi in the upper registers. I like this section, all piano, very much. (I've always like Rainer Brüninghaus' piano play: his melodic choices have a real deep and profound connection to my soul!) In the 12th minute it feels as if he's starting to climb out of it: so cool! So beautiful. Again, I can see where Brian Eno and Harold Budd (and maybe Philip Glass) got some of their inspiration. The Terry Riley/Soft Machine "Out- Bloody-Rageous" section that ensues is pretty cool, and then it's followed by a sparse drum and percussion solo section that sounds greatly inspired by African and Caribbean instrument sounds and stylings--for a bout two minutes--before revolving back to the Terry Riley/Soft Machine-like motif. Marimba leads the next percussion section starting at 14:30 and then once more back to the Riley-Softs motif with bass, horn, and synths now participating in the weave--before yet another unexpected return to the ploddingly-slow ocarina motif at 16:05. More varied and developed recapitulations of previously exposed themes carry the tune to its end. Wow! What an odd, unusual ride! The most striking thing about this 20-minute song is how odd and hodge-podged all of the various expositions, developments, and recapitulations of the movements are; it's just like a symphony, only a weird one! I like it--very much--though I think they could have improved a few parts (why ocarina?) My favorite movement is, however, the five minutes in the middle (~7:00 to 12:00) when Rainer Brüninghaus is alone (with himself). (36.75/40)

Total time 40:07

While I am greatly appreciative of the creative sound and structural designs of Eberhard and, to a lesser extent, Manfred Eicher (I actually think his and engineers Martin Wieland and Kurt Rapp's editing is one of the more disappointing and detracting elements of these songs: they are no Teo Maceros), I do find the music of his successive albums, Yellow Fields, The Following Morning, and Fluid Rustle far more accessible and enjoyable. Still, Eberhard was 34-years old at the time of making this album: mature enough to know what he liked, as well as to compose some well-thought-out creations. This would be only the beginning of his peak period of masterful creations.

A-/4.5 stars; a flawed but ultimately impressive minor masterpiece of boundary-pushing Jazz-Rock Fusion.