EBERHARD WEBER – Encore
ECM 471 2051
Eberhard Weber (electric double bass, keyboards); Ack van Rooyen (flugelhorn)
Live recordings 1990-2007
Presented as a companion album to Resume released in 2012, this latest album from Weber should be by no means regarded as a follow up, but rather coexists with its predecessor with the only similarities perhaps being the manner of creation with their genesis from the same initial sessions.
As before, the bassist has taken solos from performances with the Jan Garbarek over seventeen year period. The original solos were conceived as transitions within the concert programme and were all spontaneously improvised lasting anything from six to twelve minutes. By isolating the bass solos, Weber has reshaped and edited to provide new melodic lines and rhythmic accompaniment and crafted new compositions with the addition of overdubbed keyboards and on several tracks the flugelhorn of Ack van Rooyen.
As with the previous set, Weber has retained the same system for adding titles to these ‘new compositions’ that is they are simply named after the city or town where the original solos were recorded. Anyone who has seen the bassist in concert whether it be at a solo recital or with the Garbarek group will immediately identify with that distinctive sound that Eberhard gets from his custom made electric double bass, as is clearly evidenced in the exuuberent opening statement that is ‘Cambridge’.
If once again Weber has cleverly reworked improvised solos with the addition of composed keyboard parts, he has taken the concept begun on Resume one step further. In the booklet note for the album he says that it was “difficult to make room for Jhe bassistsan Garbarek’s solos on tenor and soprano saxophone”, as he felt that the “density” of his way of playing left no available space. With Encore he has found a way of negating this problem, and the flugelhorn fits the music as if it was always meant to occupy that space. So much so, that when looking at my original sketches for this review, the majority of the tracks that I had marked as having particular interest nearly all featured the soft toned flugel of van Rooyen. These pieces also demonstrate the variety that Weber has brought to these pieces, from the lost and lonely feeling of ‘Rankweil’, with Eberhard’s arco playing followed by that lovely flugel sound, with sharp contrast being found in the funky opening bass riff ‘Klagenfurt’ with van Rooyen joining the additional overdubbed piano accompaniment and the swinging comping on ‘Hanover’.
Highly appropriate that Ack van Rooyen should feature so strongly throughout Encore as he played on the bassist’s debut album, The Colours of Chloe some 42 years previously, and now plays an important part in what Weber says maybe his last album.
A marvellous set of ‘recompositions’ that delivers in abundance, utilising a method of working that is less sensitive hands could result in pure self indulgence
ECM 471 2051
Eberhard Weber (electric double bass, keyboards); Ack van Rooyen (flugelhorn)
Live recordings 1990-2007
Presented as a companion album to Resume released in 2012, this latest album from Weber should be by no means regarded as a follow up, but rather coexists with its predecessor with the only similarities perhaps being the manner of creation with their genesis from the same initial sessions.
As before, the bassist has taken solos from performances with the Jan Garbarek over seventeen year period. The original solos were conceived as transitions within the concert programme and were all spontaneously improvised lasting anything from six to twelve minutes. By isolating the bass solos, Weber has reshaped and edited to provide new melodic lines and rhythmic accompaniment and crafted new compositions with the addition of overdubbed keyboards and on several tracks the flugelhorn of Ack van Rooyen.
As with the previous set, Weber has retained the same system for adding titles to these ‘new compositions’ that is they are simply named after the city or town where the original solos were recorded. Anyone who has seen the bassist in concert whether it be at a solo recital or with the Garbarek group will immediately identify with that distinctive sound that Eberhard gets from his custom made electric double bass, as is clearly evidenced in the exuuberent opening statement that is ‘Cambridge’.
If once again Weber has cleverly reworked improvised solos with the addition of composed keyboard parts, he has taken the concept begun on Resume one step further. In the booklet note for the album he says that it was “difficult to make room for Jhe bassistsan Garbarek’s solos on tenor and soprano saxophone”, as he felt that the “density” of his way of playing left no available space. With Encore he has found a way of negating this problem, and the flugelhorn fits the music as if it was always meant to occupy that space. So much so, that when looking at my original sketches for this review, the majority of the tracks that I had marked as having particular interest nearly all featured the soft toned flugel of van Rooyen. These pieces also demonstrate the variety that Weber has brought to these pieces, from the lost and lonely feeling of ‘Rankweil’, with Eberhard’s arco playing followed by that lovely flugel sound, with sharp contrast being found in the funky opening bass riff ‘Klagenfurt’ with van Rooyen joining the additional overdubbed piano accompaniment and the swinging comping on ‘Hanover’.
Highly appropriate that Ack van Rooyen should feature so strongly throughout Encore as he played on the bassist’s debut album, The Colours of Chloe some 42 years previously, and now plays an important part in what Weber says maybe his last album.
A marvellous set of ‘recompositions’ that delivers in abundance, utilising a method of working that is less sensitive hands could result in pure self indulgence
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Reviewed by Nick Lea
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