Yellow Fields - Eberhard Weber

Apr

17

Yellow Fields - Eberhard Weber

≡ Category: 1970s, Essential, Reviews, World Fusion |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING

Rating:

Featuring extended sonic landscapes that expand and contract organically, Yellow Fields is unlike anything you will ever hear, with the exception of Eberhard Weber’s other releases with his group Colours, Silent Feet and Little Movements.

Jazz is generally defined as improvisational music that grows out of the blues, but you will search in vain for any kind of blues influence here. Instead, you will find elements of European and Indian classical music.

Sometimes Eberhard Weber’s music is pigeonholed as being typical of the ECM label, which is absolutely not true. There is nothing tentative, meandering, or new agey about this music. Rather, it is utterly disciplined and rigorous.

The tunes on Yellow Fields grow out of the most simple of patterns. For example, Sand Glass lives up to it’s name, with two chord arpeggios plinked out by Weber, suggesting grains of sand, serving as the basis of the entire composition. From there, Rainer Bruninghaus builds a transparent edifice of electric piano chords on Weber’s foundation. Charlie Mariano elaborates, weaving sinuous lines throughout the structure on the nagaswaram, a south Indian classical instrument which is traditionally made from the aacha tree. Drummer Jon Christensen weaves his spell with a flurry of chattering cymbals. It’s a lot like watching sand fall through an hourglass, but a lot more stimulating.

Left Lane is another good example of that approach. After a rubato introduction, we are introduced to the next section, which consists of a long cadence, over which Mariano gives us melodic variations of a rhythmic figure. Then Mariano, Bruninghaus, and Christensen improvise over the form for a good ten minutes. By all rights, it should be boring as hell, but instead it’s mesmerizing.

Due to the simple structures, the musicians can concentrate on listening to each other. They comment on and inspire each one another, essentially creating the piece in the moment out of their imaginations. This only works because of the chemistry between them and the thoughtful approach of the musicians.

Many times in jazz, you can sense a musician lazily trotting out rhythmic pattern #14 or lick #145. Not here. Nobody just spews notes out without thinking.

At the same time, there is nothing academic about the music being made here. It is deeply spiritual. Yellow Fields is what I imagine the interlocking dreams of four Shaman would sound like if the images could be transmogrified into music.