Gary Burton Quartet with Eberhard Weber - Passengers
Gary Burton Quartet with Eberhard Weber - Passengers
Label: ECM | Genre: Jazz | mp3 320 kbps | Release 1976 | 92,2 MB
Personnel:
Gary Burton Quartet: Gary Burton (vibraphone); Pat Metheny (electric guitar); Steve Swallow (electric bass); Dan Gottlieb (drums). Additional personnel: Eberhard Weber (acoustic bass).
This is the only album that features two bassists playing simultaneously on each track in a small ensemble setting - Steve Swallow on electric bass and the incomparable Eberhardt Weber on his bizarre…well, let's just call it an acoustic bass and leave it at that. The unique and wonderful sound of Weber's instrument has him mostly playing the role of soloist throughout - uncommon for a bassist - while Swallow handles the traditional bass duties of bottom end and rhythm. But even in this short set Swallow is still given ample time to break loose with several solos of his own (Sea Journey, B&G, etc). If you've never heard Weber's bass sound it is quite a treat and this album is a great place to start.
This album marks the last collaboration of Metheny with GB as a band member before the union of Pat with Lyle Mays to form the Pat Metheny Group and the production of Watercolors at the same Oslo, Norway studio a few months later in the spring of 1977. It is very evident from this recording that Pat is ready, both as a composer and an instrumentalist, to front his own band and that first manifestation of PMG imported Weber and drummer Dan Gottlieb from this project.
The fabulous lyrical style of Metheny's composing is well documented on his three original contributions to Passengers - Nacada, The Whopper and B&G (Midwestern Night's Dream). B&G is an especially interesting piece that is anchored by an elegant and simple alternating chord progression between Bm7 and GM7 - thus the name B&G. Pat has admitted to struggling with names for his compositions over the years and has occasionally resorted to simply cataloging them with a reference to such thing as time signatures or rhythm patterns (see 45/8 and 5-5-7 respectively from 'Letter From Home'). Maybe Midwestern Nights Dream didn't quite do it for him.
Weber and Swallow contribute a single composition each - both quite strange - and the album starts off with Sea Journey, an energetic and fun 9-minute piece by Chick Corea that gives plenty of solo time to all. But woven throughout are the masterful and fluid tones of GB's vibes - never forceful but always fully in command - simple to follow but never simplistic. The only gripe I have about gems like this recorded in the 70's is that they are way too short. They recorded on vinyl in those days, you know, which had about half the play time of today's CD's and left you wanting much more after the measly 45 minutes had flown by. Such is the case here.
Label: ECM | Genre: Jazz | mp3 320 kbps | Release 1976 | 92,2 MB
Personnel:
Gary Burton Quartet: Gary Burton (vibraphone); Pat Metheny (electric guitar); Steve Swallow (electric bass); Dan Gottlieb (drums). Additional personnel: Eberhard Weber (acoustic bass).
This is the only album that features two bassists playing simultaneously on each track in a small ensemble setting - Steve Swallow on electric bass and the incomparable Eberhardt Weber on his bizarre…well, let's just call it an acoustic bass and leave it at that. The unique and wonderful sound of Weber's instrument has him mostly playing the role of soloist throughout - uncommon for a bassist - while Swallow handles the traditional bass duties of bottom end and rhythm. But even in this short set Swallow is still given ample time to break loose with several solos of his own (Sea Journey, B&G, etc). If you've never heard Weber's bass sound it is quite a treat and this album is a great place to start.
This album marks the last collaboration of Metheny with GB as a band member before the union of Pat with Lyle Mays to form the Pat Metheny Group and the production of Watercolors at the same Oslo, Norway studio a few months later in the spring of 1977. It is very evident from this recording that Pat is ready, both as a composer and an instrumentalist, to front his own band and that first manifestation of PMG imported Weber and drummer Dan Gottlieb from this project.
The fabulous lyrical style of Metheny's composing is well documented on his three original contributions to Passengers - Nacada, The Whopper and B&G (Midwestern Night's Dream). B&G is an especially interesting piece that is anchored by an elegant and simple alternating chord progression between Bm7 and GM7 - thus the name B&G. Pat has admitted to struggling with names for his compositions over the years and has occasionally resorted to simply cataloging them with a reference to such thing as time signatures or rhythm patterns (see 45/8 and 5-5-7 respectively from 'Letter From Home'). Maybe Midwestern Nights Dream didn't quite do it for him.
Weber and Swallow contribute a single composition each - both quite strange - and the album starts off with Sea Journey, an energetic and fun 9-minute piece by Chick Corea that gives plenty of solo time to all. But woven throughout are the masterful and fluid tones of GB's vibes - never forceful but always fully in command - simple to follow but never simplistic. The only gripe I have about gems like this recorded in the 70's is that they are way too short. They recorded on vinyl in those days, you know, which had about half the play time of today's CD's and left you wanting much more after the measly 45 minutes had flown by. Such is the case here.
Track Listing:
1. Sea Journey
2. Nacada
3. Whopper, The
4. B & G (Midwestern Nights Dream)
5. Yellow Fields
6. Claude And Betty
Gary Burton Quartet with Eberhard Weber - Passengers
