Eberhard Weber
He is without question one of the most important and internationally influential German jazz musicians and composers: The bassist Eberhard Weber impressed and influenced many other instrumentalists with his willful, singing and somewhat wailing tone. He became famous because of his use of the electric solid body double bass.
Born in Stuttgart, Germany on January 22nd 1940, Eberhard started his career at the age of six with cello lessons. In the school orchestra he switched over the heavier double bass and used the classical bowing technique as well as the jazz plucking technique. Weber apparently started studying the concept of the double bass as lead instrument already in the high school years: what was natural for the former cellist wasn’t very welcome with his fellow musicians.
Eberhard Weber started playing with pianist Wolfgang Dauner in 1960 and during this time they released some LPs. In the early seventies he was momentarily also a member of the Dave Pike Set. Dauner’s and Weber’s later band Et Cetera oscillated between swinging jazz and the hip rock-jazz of the ealry seventies. Weber released his most successful album to date entitled “The Colours of Chloë” in 1973, with which he inspired many bass players worldwide. Apparently some time earlier he got his hands on an old double bass and added a high C-string, which allowed him to play those high, clear solo passages, something he wanted to do for a long time.
Later followed the band Colours with Rainer Brüninghaus (p), Charlie Mariano (as), Jon Christensen and later John Marshall (dr); he also worked with big names like the Pat Metheny Group, Gary Burton, Ralph Towner, and then from 1982 till 1998 he was a steady member of Norwegian sax player Jan Garbarek’s band. In the eightes he was giving solo concerts, recorded many solo albums, played on three LPs of pop singer Kate Bush and was also a member of the United Jazz and Rock Ensemble. At the same time he also worked as a TV and theater director for years
Weber was always associated with the electric upright and the solid body double bass, but in the sixties one could occasionally hear him he play a Framus electric bass and that bass was a BL-16 semi-acoustic.