Encore

Eberhard Weber

EN / DE

Encore is a companion volume to Résumé, the widely-praised solo album issued in 2011. Eberhard Weber returns once more to the many live recordings of his tenure with the Jan Garbarek Group, isolating his bass solos and reworking them into new pieces with the addition of his own keyboard parts. “I became what you might call a composer of New Music,” says Weber, “with the proviso that I make use of old things.”This season’s special guest is veteran Dutch flugelhorn player Ack van Rooyen. Van Rooyen, who played on Weber’s ECM leader date, The Colours of Chloë more than 40 years ago now adds his own subtle colours to Weber’s contemporary sound-montages. The bass solos were recorded between 1990 and 2007, in thirteen European cities, from Edinburgh to Seville, and the music was mixed and edited at Studios La Buissonne in the South of France in November 2014.

Encore ist eine Art Begleiter zu Resumé, dem allenthalben gelobten Weber-Soloalbum aus dem Jahr 2011. Erneut wendet sich Weber den vielen Live-Aufnahmen aus seiner Zeit in der Jan Garbarek Group zu: Er isoliert seine Bass-Soli aus diesen Aufnahmen und arbeitet sie in neue Stücke ein, ergänzt um eigene Keyboard-Parts. „Ich bin geworden, was man einen Neue-Musik-Komponisten nennen könnte“, sagt Weber, „mit dem Vorbehalt, dass ich auf alte Dinge zurückgreife.“ Sein Special Guest ist diesmal der holländische Flügelhorn-Spieler Ack van Rooyen, der schon auf Webers ECM-Album The Colours of Chloë vor 40 Jahren mitgewirkt hatte. Van Rooyen trägt nun seine subtilen Farben zu Webers zeitgemäßen Sound-Montagen bei. Die Bass-Soli wurden zwischen 1990 und 2007 in dreizehn europäischen Städten, von Edinburgh bis Sevilla, aufgenommen. Gemischt und editiert wurde die Musik im November 2014 in den La Buissonne Studios in Südfrankreich. Das Album erscheint im zeitlichen Umfeld mit den Jubiläumskonzerten zu Eberhard Webers 75.Geburtstag und der Veröffentlichung seiner Autobiografie.
Featured Artists Recorded

1990-2007 & November 2014

Original Release Date

06.02.2015

  • 1Frankfurt
    (Eberhard Weber)
    02:47
  • 2Konstanz
    (Eberhard Weber)
    03:16
  • 3Cambridge
    (Eberhard Weber)
    04:16
  • 4Rankweil
    (Eberhard Weber)
    04:14
  • 5Langenhagen
    (Eberhard Weber)
    03:53
  • 6Granada
    (Eberhard Weber)
    02:57
  • 7Sevilla
    (Eberhard Weber)
    04:30
  • 8London
    (Eberhard Weber)
    03:00
  • 9Klagenfurt
    (Eberhard Weber)
    03:41
  • 10Bradford
    (Eberhard Weber)
    03:54
  • 11Edinburgh
    (Eberhard Weber)
    02:05
  • 12Hannover
    (Eberhard Weber)
    03:23
  • 13Pamplona
    (Eberhard Weber)
    03:17
“Encore” follows up the musical directions Eberhard Weber explored on his critically-acclaimed “Resumé” album of 2012. The source material here is comprised of more of the unique electric bass solos Weber played in performances with the Jan Garbarek Group between 1990 and 2007. Track titles derive from tour itineraries of the period. Here are pieces recorded in Frankfurt, Cambridge, Rankweil, Bradford, London, Klagenfurt, Granada, Edinburgh, Konstanz, Seville, Hannover, Langenhagen and Pamplona – none of them sounding as they did on the night. Now the solos are meticulously edited, rearranged and modified with additional keyboard parts played by Weber. In November 2014 he put the finishing touches to the material at Studios La Buissonne in southern France, joined by an old friend, veteran Dutch trumpeter and flugelhorn player Ack van Rooyen (who appeared on Weber’s “The Colours of Chloë”, forty-two years ago): “Van Rooyen played on my debut, and now he’s on what may be my last album. I can’t really say whether I’ll turn out anything after ‘Encore’.”

Weber discusses the album’s genesis in a liner note interview with Karl Lippegaus: “I listen to a lot of music and I listen very precisely. It took me a year to find out what I could do with this material. Those bass solos with the Garbarek Group functioned as transitions between two large blocks of sound in the concerts. Usually they were completely spontaneous, roughly six to ten minutes long. I lit on the idea of adding something to them myself. Since I’m no longer able to play bass, I have to plough my way with one hand on keyboard or piano. Here I could decide where I wanted a piano part and when to stop, something that’s almost never possible on stage, even out of courtesy to the others... Spontaneity is very important. I could make use of solos from almost two decades of work.” Now, Weber says, he must address his earlier spontaneity from another perspective, becoming his own producer and critic. The process of remoulding solos from the past to make music in the present is an unconventional one but its potential was evident already on “Résumé”. In Jazz Journal Michael Tucker described that disc as “music of dark and deep yet also rhythmically engaging, at times even playful substance. Featuring judicious use of digital delay and loops, and with diversely unfolding and layered pizzicato and arco motifs offering what registers throughout as mythopoetically-charged melody, the meta-music that is ‘Résumé’ is perhaps the most thoroughly arresting of all the albums Weber has made.” “Encore” carries its momentum forward.

“Encore” is issued in Eberhard Weber’s 75th year, his birthday celebrated in January with sold-out concerts in Stuttgart, the town where he was born, with performances of Weber’s music and new work dedicated to him, featuring Jan Garbarek, Ralph Towner, Gary Burton, Pat Metheny, Danny Gottlieb, Scott Colley, Michael Gibbs , Paul McCandless and the SWR Big Band.

Eberhard Weber’s autobiography Résumé: Eine deutsche Jazz-Geschichte is imminent from German publishers Sagas Edition.

In January Eberhard Weber received a lifetime achievement award, the newly created Landes-Jazzpreis Baden Württemberg, honoring his artistic work and influence on musicians worldwide.