Customer Reviews

Colours

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I concur with the other reviewers that the release of this box-set was indeed an excellent idea. I will now be able to enjoy Eberhard Weber's music for years to come after wearing out my vinyl copies of these three superb recordings. I wished that they would have included "The Colours of Chole" in this set because that disc was the foundation for this music and is very difficult to obtain without paying a kings' ransom. I hope that ECM will continue along this path of releasing masterpieces from their 1970's/80's vaults. To help the company continue to implement this excellent strategy, I strongly suggest that ECM release the following masterpieces:

1. Jack Dejohnette's Directions - "Untitled" (1976) and "New Rags" (1977)
2. John Abercrombie Quartet - "Quartet" (1979), "Arcade" (1980), and "M" (1981)
3. Arild Andersen - "Clouds In My Head" (1975), "Shimri" (1976) and "Green Shading Into Blue" (1978)
3. Art Lande and Rubisa Patrol - "Desert Mauraders" (1979)
4. Steve Kuhn - "Non-Fiction" (1978)
5. Miroslav Vitous - "Miroslav Vitous Group" (1981)
6. James Newton - "Axum" (1982)

These recordings, just like Eberhard Weber's Colours, helped to shape my appreciation and love for Jazz. My collection would welcome the above additions. Thanks ECM! Now let's get cracking on these other treasures that you are holding on to .

Peace!

Colours is a reissue in one 3 CD-pack of the three recordings of the extraordinary bassist, composer and arranger Eberhard Weber's influential group, Colours, which was comprised of Weber on bass, Charlie Mariano on soprano saxophone, flutes and various oriental reeds, Rainer Bruninghaus on piano and synthesizer, and Jon Christensen on drums, replaced by John Marshall for the second and third recording sessions. The group held together for half a decade, 1975-1981, playing live and recording. Their recordings, especially the first one, Yellow Fields (1975), influenced many musicians. Vibist Gary Burton added Weber to his group for two exceptional recordings, and also recorded Weber's best known piece, "Colors of Chloe." Weber showed up in collaboration with Ralph Towner and Jan Garbarek on Solstice, and the sound of Colours, as much as any sound, helped define the "ECM sound," an amalgam of American-style jazz and a cooler European sound that was in many aspects influenced by classical music and musicians. (On these discs, listen to Bruninghausen's long, elegiac piano solos in particular, or to the ensemble sound buildups that lead into solo passages.) But for all of its cooler sound palette, these are jazz performances. They are, at times, as hot as any jazz produced.

The best examples of what this amazing group accomplished are on the first two cuts on Yellow Fields, the first and by far best of these three exceptional discs. On the first cut, "Touch," the drummer and pianist lay down a pulse of sound --it throbs! Weber plays a looping obbligato on his handcrafted electric bass: his bass line obliquely implies the central melody but doesn't ape it. Mariano enters on soprano sax and Bruninghausen lays down chord spreads behind him. Weber continues his oblique commentary. Christensen kicks up the pressure -same pulse, but with hard irregular cymbal splashes on top of the beat. The music flows, is intensely musical, and then Charlie Mariano enters on soprano sax. His solo is sheer bliss, long notes, lyrical keening sound. "Sand Glass" is three times as long as "Touch" at fifteen minutes: the piece is as good as anything recorded in that decade, which is saying a lot, as perfect as a piece of jazz gets.

Weber's bass never sounded like anyone else's. He only occasionally plays straight rhythm, preferring to play alt melody lines along with, over and across the music produced by the rest of the group, with relatively few notes and lots of space inside his lines. His sound reverberates! I said once, I think to my son Jeremy, that if a whale sang jazz, it would sound like Eberhard Weber does. When Weber starts to solo, it sounds like a large, slow, graceful animal keening across distance. Charlie Mariano solos very effectively on "Sand Glass" not only on soprano but using two exotic sounding oriental reeds, the shenai and the nagaraswam. My one regret is that there is no occasion on these albums for Mariano to play alto sax, the instrument with which he came to public attention as featured soloist in the Stan Kenton orchestra and then in an outstanding quartet he co-led with his then-wife pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi. His alto was probably too hot, boppish, for the cool, orchestral sound that Weber wanted to attain with Colours.

The second and third CDs, Silent Feet (1977) and Little Movements (1980), are good but no Yellow Fields. Christensen had left the group to work with Terje Rypdal and Palle Mikkelsen but Marshall was a more than competent replacement. He's more directly percussive than Christensen. (Christensen plays sotile sotile, to lift a phrase from Collodi's Pinocchio, the only book I read all the way through in Italian.) The difference: Christensen is a phenomenally inventive drummer and Marshall is simply a good one. Both albums feature long, somewhat flabby pieces (especially "Bali" in Little Movements) but the level of melodic invention and the lush sound and effects the group produced are still present and enjoyable. "Bali," released 1980, echoes Steve Reich's classical minimalism in parts, kind of a jazz version of a la Music for 18 Musicians (1974-6). Aside from the musical value of these three CDs, which is high, these albums have historical value: they highlight the half-decade career of an exceptional combo whose music offered an alternative course for that exciting improvised music called jazz. The album also points to Weber's later career, not always in jazz, in albums such as his evocative Endless Days (2000). Thank you, ECM, for releasing these fine albums again after being unavailable for so long!

Can it really be possible that the newest release compiled in this 3-CD boxed set dates from 30 years ago? But yes, this set includes three releases from Weber's "Colours" band: Yellow Fields (1975), Silent Feet (1977), and Little Movements (1980). All three releases feature Weber on bass, Charlie Mariano on soprano sax and flutes, and Rainer Brüninghaus on keyboards. Jon Christensen played drums on Yellow Fields, while the drum chair on the two subsequent recordings was occupied by John Marshall. These recordings have been hard to find lately; indeed, it is wonderful to have them back in this ECM boxed set.

Bassist Weber has long been a sideman and leader on numerous ECM recordings over several decades. His fat tone and lyrical style are readily recognizable. On these recordings, his lyricism steps to the forefront, as these albums flow along with gently rolling rhythms and a sense of the sheer joy of making music. It is hard to play these CDs without being swept into feelings of joy and exuberance. The music just flows, pulling the listener along, at times erupting into what seems to be sheer wordless song. For those who are either too young or for some other reason missed out on these recordings back in the `70s, this set offers a wonderful chance to find out what you missed.

This is a re-release(budget minded) of Eberhard Weber's first three albums with his band Colours! Who, by the way, are phenomenal! I personally got this collection for 'Yellow Fields'-which is the only one to feature Jon Christensens amazing drumming. I find this to be the best of the three, but possibly only because of my drummer preference! 'Silent Feet', which I have been listening to for years, is inherently a 'perfect' ECM album. And 'Little Movements picks up exactly where Little Feet ends. The musicianship on all three is top notch, and despite my love of Christensen's impressionist technique, John Marshall's (also a member of Soft Machine-don't miss out on them, either!) drumming is also incredible in both style and play. Eberhard's virtuoso bass lines are always incredible as well as the sax of Charlie Mariano and brilliant piano of Rainier Bruninghhaus. Now that you can own all three of these masterpieces for(at least at the time of my writing of this) the same price as any one of these albums individually. DON'T PASS THIS UP!

3 Eberhard Weber LP's as three CDs in one box; Yellow Fields (1976), Silent Feet (1978), and Little Movements (1980). Each with the trio Charlie Mariano on soprano saxophone, Rainer Bruninghaus on positively liquid piano, and Eberhard Weber with his gorgeously toned, propulsive, occasionally plangent bass playing. Two of the three have john Marshall on drums and Y.F. has Jon Christensen. The recording quality is excellent, no mono or tinny nonsense from this ECM Re-issue.

The band members play composed European Jazz/film music or "picture music" in a way that allows freewheeling styles to develop out of the initial tunes. These are memorable tunes that are uplifting to listen to, with a timeless quality that come from great players who innnately know what each other are doing. It is not dated. There is a Germanic/European feel, but is a little more jazzy than the earlier, wonderful 1975 album by Eberhard Weber, The Colours of Chloe. But the piano/bass axis is the same - and unsurpassable. All CD's are about 45 mins long and there is no room for any duff tracks. They are very hard to stop once started.

Eberhard Weber may also be familiar to those who were fans of Jan Garbarek's band in the 1990's. If they like his tone there they should gamble on this.

Wow, I have to say I am totally impressed with the music on this collection. I just got it today and listened to the entire thing and am just blown away at how good it is. Creative and progressive without crossing the border into abstract nonsense. Definitely modern jazz but melodic and conceptually intelligent music that will demand repeated listenings. Highly recommended!

Ever since I bought the vinyl of "Little Movements" I have been waiting for CD reissues of the other two earlier outputs, "Yellow Fields" and "Colours". Unfortunately, the two albums did not arise me as much excitement as "Little Movements". The compositions of Eberhard Weber are somewhat minimalistic. Often they consist of a series of relatively short (8 to 16 bars) riffs, where each riff is repeated many, many times and over the repeated riffs soloists play. Whether you like an Eberhard Weber album seems to be based on whether you like the eternally repeated riffs and how they are integrated. The riffs in "Yellow Fields" and "Colours", to my ears, were not so charming. Having to listen the three CDs together is thus somewhat painful; and Weber has a few ECM outputs that are better than these ("Following Morning", "Fluid Rustle", and "Later That Evening").