It was a class reunion to remember. While the man of honor was present, he could not perform live with his old compadres. However, Pat Metheny did everything he could to construct a performance that could only spring from the fertile mind of Eberhard Weber. And, he succeeded.
S. Victor Aaron, Somethingelsereviews
What makes this celebration of his history itself historic is that the center of the album is taken up by a superb new Pat Metheny orchestral piece using previously recorded Weber solos that amounts to Metheny’s first appearance on the label since 1984. Also taking part besides Metheny in this terrific occasion and providing suitably brilliant music are Gary Burton, Jan Garbarek, Scott Colley, Paul McCandless, Danny Gottlieb and the SWR Big Band. A major jazz disc of the season from one of the year’s significant jazz occasions.
Jeff Simon, Buffalo News
Der Ausnahme-Gitarrist komponierte eine eindringliche, 30-minütige Hommage für seinen Freund, basierend auf Improvisationen von Eberhard Weber. Sie ist das Herzstück der CD [….] eine Art Suite, die auf wunderbare Weise Webers und Methenys Spirit vereint, die Eberhard Webers Bassspiel in den Mittelpunkt rückt und gleichwohl allen Beteiligten starke musikalische Parts zuspielt: eine ganz große, bewegende Arbeit.
Katharina Lohmann, Jazzthetik
Ein Konzert, das noch als Tondokument nahegeht und die Größe und Bedeutung des Komponisten und Musikers Eberhard Weber deutlich macht.
Heribert Ickerott, Jazzpodium
A few big band arrangements of Weber’s tunes remind you how flexible his compositional ideas were. The centerpiece is Pat Metheny’s ‘Hommage,’ a suite based around videos of Weber solos, around which are layered robust arrangements for the SWR Big Band and soloists. A section featuring bassist Scott Colley in counterpoint with Weber’s past sound leaves a wistful afterglow, as does the poignant final track, ‘Notes After an Evening.’
David Weininger, The Boston Globe
Much marvellous improvising over the rich-textured arrangements. In all, a tremendously satisfying issue, and an absolute must for all those who have found Weber's huge body of work - as a bandleader and also in many significant musical partnerships - so appealing.
John Watson, Jazz Camera
Central is Metheny’s magnificent extended title composition, with soloists and the harmonic might of the SWR Big Band playing against Weber’s judiciously sampled bass, Metheny’s sinuous guitar, Burton’s ascending chimes and the younger bassist Colley joyously taking off from Weber’s ‘sonic fingerprint.’ Garbarek duets powerfully with recordings of his colleague in ‘Resumé Variations’, while other arrangements, not least Weber’s lovely ‘Notes After an Evening’, make this a triumph of virtuosity as well as affection.
Jim Gilchrist, The Scotsman (Five Stars)
Weber did much to give jazz a European identity inflected by rock and electronics in the 1970s, but his unique electric-bass sound was stilled by a disabling stroke in 2007. This set’s orchestral arrangements of his compositions, plus a powerful 30-minute Metheny tribute for Stuttgart’s excellent SWR Big Band, are extensively built around tapes of his solos, so the music has a haunting poignancy. Metheny shapes a remarkably cohesive work around the bass recordings, his own sleek synclavier-guitar solos and Gary Burton’s vibraphone. Mike Gibbs’ delectable arrangement of Weber’s ‘Maurizius’ is also a standout, as is Jan Garbarek’s atmospheric solo sax improvisation with the missing Weber bass. […] there’s a lot of heartfelt and often beautiful music here for his admirers.
John Fordham, The Guardian
Einige der bekanntesten Weggefährten aus Webers Karriere, darunter Jan Garbarek (Sopransaxophon), Pat Metheny (Gitarren) und Gary Burton (Vibraphon) ließen es sich nicht nehmen für ihn zu spielen, und doch wurde aus den Konzerten kein bloßes All-Star-Treffen. Denn auch die SWR Bigband war mit von der Partie, geleitet von dem Norweger Helge Sunde, und so sollte Weber seine eigene Musik zum ersten Mal im Orchesterformat hören, mit solistischen Sahnehäubchen seitens der angereisten Stars. […] eine feine ‚Hommage‘.
Berthold Klostermann, Stereo
This is really a wonderful tribute to Weber as his tunes have been magnificently adapted for the Big Band treatment. The first track ‘Résumé Variations’ features Garbarek's saxophone improvisations over Weber's pre-recorded bass loops making for a very haunting and ethereal piece of musical brilliance. The focal point of the album is the massive thirty-three minute title track where Metheny has selected Weber's solo bass improvisations and adapted them to a Big Band setting. The piece slowly builds as the brass becomes more prominent and Metheny's fluid like guitar starts to take hold all the while keeping Weber's liquefied bass meanderings front and center. All the players get in on the act as this is truly a band effort and the brass playing is phenomenal. […] Judging from their enthusiastic response, the audience, which included Weber himself, enjoyed the concert very much. If you are a fan of Metheny, Weber or just jazz in general, I suggest you will too.
Jon Neudorf, Sea of Tranquility
The big piece of the program is ‚Hommage‘,a 31-minute orchestral commission by Pat Metheny, who aggregates a series of Weber’s solo recordings into a kind of suite. Scoring in layers of soft brass, Metheny paces the material through a variety of textures and tempos, starting with a muted, pillowy fanfare and then creating subtle tension between the rhythm’s subliminal urgency and vibraphonist Gary Burton’s more languid solos.
John McDonough, Downbeat
Kernstück ist ein mehr als halbstündiges Werk von Pat Metheny, in welches der Gitarrist auf die Rückwand der Bühne projizierte Videos des improvisierenden Weber integrierte. Ein genialer Einfall eines ungemein vielfarbigen Konzerts auf höchstem Niveau.
Peter Rüedi, Die Weltwoche
‚Hommage‘ is a tribute to German bassist Eberhard Weber, whose signature sound is like no other, a sound that combines the greatest aspects of both acoustic and electric basses. […] Recorded live, the assemblage of talent is killer […] Metheny based the title piece on Weber’s solo improvisation and features dense but never over-busy orchestral arrangements (masterfully done, evoking Gil Evans) in which samples of Weber and big band orchestrations meld into a majestic panorama.
Mark Keresman, Icon Magazine
‚Hommage à Eberhard Weber‘ würdigt den Bass-Virtuosen auch als Komponisten. Die SWR Big Band lässt einige seiner Stücke im Bigband-Arrangement ganz großartig klingen. Und die alten Bass-Spuren klingen immer noch frisch, wenn sie von alten Weggefährten wie Pat Metheny, Gary Burton und Paul McCandless live begleitet werden. Der bei ECM erschienene Konzertmitschnitt ist eine angemessene Verneigung vor einer lebenden Legende.
Bernhard Jugel, B5 aktuell
This single disc documents two concerts held in Stuttgart, Germany, in January 2015, to celebrate the 75th birthday of hometown German jazz electric bassist Eberhard Weber, who has been unable to play since suffering a stroke, in 2007. Via tape loops and video samples of Weber playing, he nonetheless played a large part in his birthday celebration, particularly in the concerts' centerpiece, Pat Metheny's 30-minute ‘Hommage,’ a rare example of Metheny writing for big band and a tour de force of Weber's distinctive playing. […] The concerts concluded with several Weber compositions, including the delicate "Maurizius" (arranged by Michael Gibbs), which revolves around a theme played by the flutes of the SWR, as Burton on vibes and Oregon's Paul McCandless, on oboe, add tasteful if meandering solos. As is standard for all ECM projects, the sound is resonant and incredibly detailed throughout.
Robert Baird, Stereophile
Despite the unorthodox production process created to allow the now hors-de-combat Weber’s participation, the resulting music is some of the best I’ve heard on CD this year. Powerful, mellifluous and sophisticated, this set is a fine tribute to its subject.
Roger Thomas, BBC Music Magazine
A major feature of the album are the beautiful orchestrations by Mike Gibbs on ‘Maurizius’ and the album is never anything less than a genuine and deeply emotive tribute to the bassist and his compositional skills.
Tim Stenhouse, UK Vibe
Metheny’s ‘Hommage,’ the half-hour-plus performance at the center of this live tribute to Eberhard Weber captures both the melodic gift and the boundary-pushing approach to the jazz concert that have defined the guitarist’s success. […] The writing mostly looks to the era of jazz composition during which Metheny and Weber made their ascent, the ’70s and ’80s, when postbop melodies and Joni Mitchell songs captivated the same audience with the same accessible intellect. Weber’s lines, strong yet keening in his trademarked solidbody-upright tone, dictate the piece’s narrative shifts while showcasing Metheny’s gift for curating samples. Like a deft hip-hop producer, he knows what to pluck and repeat, how to make a hook out of a shard. (The blues bassline that emerges at 12:20 will make you giggle.) Complementing Metheny’s centerpiece are additional performances of Weber music that would be the pearl of most any other album—especially the opening saxophone incantation, featuring Jan Garbarek in duet with his musical brother via tape.
Evan Haga, Jazz Times
The ‘Hommage’ by Pat Metheny constitutes the core of the disc. Featuring terrific section work from the SWR big band and fine solos from , e.g., Burton, Colley and Gottlieb, the strongly atmospheric, shape-shifting piece builds upon a sequence of solo improvisations from Weber […] ‘Hommage’ just tops ‘Encore’ as my record of the year.
Michael Tucker, Jazz Journal