When these 75th-birthday concerts for the pioneering German bassist/composer Eberhard Weber took place in Stuttgart in January 2015, witnesses reported being enthralled both by the music and the international jazz aristocracy – including Pat Metheny, Jan Garbarek and Gary Burton – participating in it. 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. Weber’s sparing themes and subtle tone-poetry are perhaps better suited to small bands than orchestras, but there’s a lot of heartfelt and often beautiful music here for his admirers.
