In celebration of the famed bassist Eberhard Weber’s 75th birthday, a collection of concerts from colleagues and friends perform old and new music in small and big band format. The collection of guests is impressive, including Pat Metheny/g, Jan garbarek/sax, Gary Burton/vib, Scott Colley/b, Danny Gottlieb/dr/Paul McCandless/reeds and the SWR Big Band conducted by Helge Sunde and Michael Gibbs.
The musician of honor shows up in recorded form, as Garbarek teams up with a collection of Weber’s taped bass for some soprano sax explorations on “Resume’ Variations. “ The major opus of this get together, however, is the commissioned title track composed by Metheny and performed with him and Sunde’s Big Band along with Burton, Colley and Gottlieb. The 31 minute opus gives plenty of room for the guitar and vibes, and the horns are used for both riding the whip and framing the picture. Burton works with the Big Band on a tasty read of Weber’s “Touch” which also includes Ernst Hutter’s mellifluous euphonium. McCandless and Burton get the spotlight on “Street Scenes” and “Notes After An Evening” with an extra solo by alto saxist Klaus Graf on the latter. Each piece is packed with Weber’s patented thoughtful pulse along with harmonic surprises interspersed. The extra punch provided by the SWR Big Band adds texture to these pieces and keeps the solos from going off track. Possibly the best part about this tribute is that the artist is still alive, which promises more music such as this.
ECM Records