Apr 15: Molde Canticle

Molde is a town in Norway. It is one of the stopping-off points on the Hurtigruten coastal route - a trip I've always wanted to take.

The Jan Garbarek Group's 1990 album 'I took up the Runes' is one of my favourites. The cover is an ECM classic of minimalism.

It includes a five-part piece of music called 'Molde Canticle'.

My first time seeing the Jan Garbarek Group live was in 1990 and they opened with this song, with the late Nana Vasconcelos on percussion.

Here's a live version from 1991, with the late Marilyn Mazur (more on her elsewhere on the blog to come) from Hamburg.

A variation on this music was used at the closing Ceremony of the Winter Olympics in 1994 when Albertville handed over to Norway.

I remember watching and thinking "I know this music..."

The Olympic Hymn was sung by Sissel Kirkjebø, and there was plenty of actual SNOW.... Modern Winter Olympics are struggling to find enough of the real stuff...

Apr 10: Eberhard Weber

Eberhard Weber is a German bassist. He has sadly retired from playing following a heart attack which happened in April 2007.

He played with a great many of my favourite musicians.

The first time I saw him I was completely blown away by his style and sound. This was a concert with the Jan Garbarek Group performing 'Molde Canticle' from 'I took up the Runes' at the Cambridge Corn Exchange.

More on that to come in a few days' time...

Portrait by Gert Chesi - Shared under CC license

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eberhard_Weber#/media/File:Eberhard_Weber_-_Portrait_by_Gert_Chesi.jpg

I then saw him around a half dozen other times with the Jan Garbarek Group, including a concert at the St. Andrews Hall in Norwich, where I had front row seats.

One night in Norwich I also went to see him play a solo concert at the Norwich Arts Centre. He said quite a bit between the music that he played expressing thanks and surprise that people would come out to watch him "playing with himself".

This was a reference to the echo and delay unit that he used to layer up sounds and create some wonderful effects and tunes.

He started out working with other musicians, and recorded several solo albums too.

He also played with the Colours Quartet and recorded several albums, which had Lyle Mays as one of the players too.

Here's an early performance.

A tribute concert was held in Stuttgart in 2015.

It was released as an ECM album called 'Hommage a Eberhard Weber' - I have a copy of that album.

Musicians playing were: Gary Burton, Pat Metheny, Scott Colley, Danny Gottlieb, SWR Big Band, Helge Sunde.

Weber's latest albums, Résumé (2012) and Encore (2015) comprise solos from his performances worldwide with The Jan Garbarek Group, overdubbed with keyboards/treatments by Weber, saxophone by Garbarek, and flügelhorn by Ack Van Rooyen.

This included a long piece which was written by Pat Metheny.

This was recorded with musicians in front of a screen which showed some of his solo work.

One of the final pieces of music that the late Lyle Mays (who will be remembered in due course in a post on the blog) recorded is called 'Eberhard' and is a tribute to him.

Seek out some of his work with Jan Garbarek.

Finally, it's also worth saying that he also worked with Kate Bush.

A REDDIT post tells the story by sharing images of books.

He talks about the experience in an interview:

She called me once when I was in Hamburg. I couldn’t even believe it was her. The hotel had a message from Kate Bush and I called her back. She told me she loved ECM music in general and my music in particular. She wanted me to participate in one of her albums. She sent me a tape of the two tracks she wanted me to play on and asked me to think about countermelodies. So I did that and flew to London where she lived. I thought it would be like the jazz people I work with and that within two hours, the first tune is done and within another hour, the second tune is done. 

No. It’s very different, which I learned in this, my first appearance in the pop world.
They checked every note—everything, everything, everything. The first tune took six to eight hours. The second one the same. It explained to me why these pop people take so long to produce their albums. They never decide right away what to do. So when I came up with some ideas they said “yes, yes, let’s record it to 48 tracks.” Then I’d have another idea and again, it would be “yes, yes, yes, let’s do it this way.” I recorded dozens of ideas and in the end, only one was accepted. These people have the attitude that it’s only later when they mix that they decide. This is very unusual compared to the older ECM productions in the '70s when I started. 

Making a record only took three days: two days of recording and one day of mixing. 

Only later on when it became more complicated with synths and such did it take longer. 

But pop people take six months or even longer to make a record."

Here's one of the tracks he played on:

Jan 19: Record Labels #1: ECM

The first of a series of posts featuring some record labels which champion music from global artists.

The record label which I perhaps have more of than any other in my collection is ECM.

ECM was founded by Manfred Eicher.

The covers of ECM music are always works of art.

This Substack article showcases some.

I have a great many ECM records in my collection. 

Here's five of my favourites, although ask me again tomorrow and I'll choose a different five:

1. 'Twelve Moons' - Jan Garbarek Group (1993)

2. Pat Metheny - 'Bright Size Life' (1976)

3. Keith Jarrett - 'Köln Concert (1975)

4. Anouar Brahem - 'Le pas du cat noir' (2002)

5. Ale Moller and Lena Willemark - 'Nordan' (1994)

Some of these will have their moment on the blog as well....

Here's the opening track from one of the albums, the wonderful 'Twelve Moons' - played live. I saw this band and this track performed live.

We also had sad news yesterday of the passing of an artist who has recorded many times with ECM: the virtuoso guitarist and pianist Ralph Towner. A real multi-instrumentalist.