Florian Weber - Biosphere (2012)

Florian Weber s father (a piano teacher) recognized an unusual discipline in his son who daily, at the age of 4, upon returning home from kindergarten headed straight for the piano to practice. Florian began taking private lessons and by the time he graduated from high school he had participated in both classical and jazz ensembles. Several competition prizes later - including the Steinway & Sons prize at the Montreaux Jazz Festival Solo Piano Competition in 2001 - he graduated from music school (in Cologne and Berklee). Florian studied with John Taylor, JoAnne Brackeen, Paul Bley, and Richie Beirach. Ms. Brackeen comments, He s very inventive, has a beautiful sound, vitality and rhythm and is also a prolific composer. I highly recommend him . Florian formed the trio Minsarah with two fellow Berklee students, Jeff Denson and Ziv Ravitz, and they have recorded four albums for Enja including two with Lee Konitz. Now based mainly in New York, for his new quartet Weber enrolled another Berklee friend, guitarist Lionel Loueke (now signed to Blue Note), alongside Thomas Morgan and Dan Weiss on bass and drums. The concept of the music is to integrate North and West African rhythms with mathematical relationships and the constructive principles of the fugue theory (as you do…), and that the music should be fun to play and for the listener, which it is!

Tracklist:

1. Filaments (Weber)
2. Casimir Effect (Weber)
3. Piecemeal (Weber)
4. Clocks (Coldplay)
5. Mivakpola (Loueke)
6. Cosmic (Jamiroquai)
7. Biosphere (Weber)
8. Getragen (Weber)
9. Evolution (Lee Konitz)
10. Tears in Heaven (Eric Clapton)

Personnel:

Florian Weber - piano, Rhodes;
Lionel Loueke - guitar;
Thomas Morgan - double bass;
Dan Weiss - drums, tabla.