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Florian Weber (born 11 November 1977) is a German pianist and composer of

modern jazz Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early to mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo (usually exceeding 200 bpm), complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerou ...

Early life and education

Weber was born on 11 November 1977 in

Detmold Detmold () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, with a population of . It was the capital of the small Principality of Lippe from 1468 until 1918 and then of the Free State of Lippe until 1947. Today it is the administrative center of ...

. His family was musical: "his father was a music professor and his mother an opera singer. He began learning the piano at the age of four and had played in both classical and jazz ensembles by the time he left high school." In 1999, he received a scholarship to attend

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music () is a Private university, private music college in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern Music of the United ...

in Boston. Later, he studied with

John Taylor John Taylor, Johnny Taylor or similar is the name of: Academics *John Taylor (Oxford), Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, 1486–1487 * John Taylor (classical scholar) (1704–1766), English classical scholar *John Taylor (English publisher) ...

in Cologne,

Joanne Brackeen Joanne Brackeen (born Joanne Grogan; July 26, 1938) is an American jazz pianist and music educator. Music career Brackeen was born in Ventura, California, United States, and attended the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music. She was a fan of pop p ...

and

Paul Bley Paul Bley, Order of Canada, CM (November 10, 1932 – January 3, 2016) was a Canadian jazz pianist known for his contributions to the free jazz movement of the 1960s as well as his innovations and influence on trio playing and his early live per ...

in Boston, and

Richie Beirach Richard Alan Beirach (born 23 May 1947) is an American jazz pianist and composer. Early life Beirach was born in New York City. He initially studied both classical music and jazz. While still attending high school, he took lessons from pianist ...

and

Lee Konitz Leon "Lee" Konitz (October 13, 1927 – April 15, 2020) was an American jazz Alto saxophone, alto saxophonist and composer. He performed successfully in a wide range of jazz styles, including bebop, cool jazz, and avant-garde jazz. Konitz's ass ...

in New York.

Career

Together with bassist Jeff Denson and drummer Ziv Ravitz, Weber founded Minsarah (Hebrew for "prism") in 2002. Their 2006 eponymous album was awarded the German Record Critics' Prize. The saxophonist Lee Konitz began working with the Trio Minsarah in 2006, and the group became a quartet. They began to tour, mainly in the United States. Their first CD, ''Deep Lee'', was released by

Enja Records Enja Records is a German jazz record company and label based in Munich which was founded by jazz enthusiasts Matthias Winckelmann and Horst Weber in 1971. The label's first release was by Mal Waldron, and early releases included European and Jap ...

around 2008. A concert was recorded and released as ''New Quartet Live at the Village Vanguard''. In 2011, Weber founded a group called Biosphere with

Lionel Loueke Lionel Loueke (born 27 April 1973) is a guitarist and vocalist born in Benin. He moved to Ivory Coast in 1990 to study at the National Institute of Art. Biography Loueke grew up in what he has described as a family of poor intellectuals in the W ...

(guitar), Thomas Morgan (bass) and Dan Weiss (drums). Their album ''Biosphere'' was released by

. The same label released Weber's trio album ''Criss Cross''. Weber recorded the duet album ''Alba'' with trumpeter

Markus Stockhausen Markus Stockhausen (born 2 May 1957) is a German trumpeter and composer. His recordings and performances have typically alternated between jazz and chamber or opera music, the latter often in collaboration with his father, composer Karlheinz St ...

for

ECM Records ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music) is an independent record label founded by Karl Egger, Manfred Eicher and Manfred Scheffner in Munich in 1969. While ECM is best known for jazz music, the label has released a variety of recordings, and ECM's a ...

around 2016 and recorded the quartet ''Lucent Waters'' for the same label in 2017.

Awards and honors

In 2013, Weber received an

Echo Music Prize Echo Music Prize (stylised as ECHO, ) was an accolade by the , an association of recording companies of Germany to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry. The first ECHO Awards ceremony was held in 1992, and was set up to honor ...

for best instrumentalist of the year (piano/keyboard). In January 2014, he received the WDR Jazz Prize for jazz improvisation.

Discography

As leader/co-leader

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weber, Florian 1977 births Living people German jazz composers German male jazz composers German jazz pianists 21st-century German pianists 21st-century German male musicians ECM Records artists Enja Records artists Intakt Records artists German male jazz pianists