Florian Weber

Early life and education

Florian was born in 1977 to music professor Rainer Weber and opera singer Elke Weber. At the age of four, he began taking private piano lessons, and by the time he graduated from high school, he had participated in both classical and jazz ensembles and toured as a soloist with various philharmonic orchestras.

In 1999, he received a scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston. Later, he studied with John Taylor in Cologne, Joanne Brackeen and Paul Bley in Boston, and Richie Beirach and Lee Konitz in New York.

Career

Since 2001, Weber has performed or recorded with Ralph Alessi, Benny Bailey, Eddie Henderson, Lee Konitz, Lionel Loueke, Albert Mangelsdorff, Pat Metheny, Thomas Morgan, Tomasz Stańko, Markus Stockhausen, and Dan Weiss.

Together with the American bassist Jeff Denson and Israeli drummer Ziv Ravitz, Weber founded the Trio Minsarah in 2002. (The word "minsarah" is Hebrew for "prism".) In 2006, they released a CD, Weber mit Minsarah, which received the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (German Record Critics' Award).

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, and recorded their first CD, Deep Lee, at the Systems Two Studio in Brooklyn. They then recorded Blurring the Lines before playing at the Village Vanguard in New York. The concert was recorded and released a year later; Weber was the first German pianist to record live at the venue. The CD received the "Choc de l'Année" award from the French magazine Jazzman.

Around the same time, Weber founded a group called Biosphere with Loueke on guitar, Morgan on bass and Weiss on drums. Their music incorporated both acoustic and electric piano, and mixed North and West African rhythms with modern jazz. In 2011, the group recorded its first CD, Biosphere; it was released in September 2012 on Enja Records. A reviewer wrote: "Biosphere has developed into one of the most gripping, casually complex albums of the jazz spring of 2012. The composition 'Piecemeal', for example, is in 27/16 meter and dedicated to quantum physics, linking the smallest motivic elements to strict principles with patterns like prime number rows and contrapuntal contrasts and then yoking the whole thing to a structural perception that is African." The album also reinterpreted melodies from popular songs, including "Clocks" by Coldplay and "Cosmic" by Jamiroquai.

Individually and with his groups, Weber has performed in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia, including at the JVC Jazz Festival in Paris, the Berlin Jazz Festival, and the Montreal International Jazz Festival. In 2015, he toured and recorded again with Konitz in Europe and the United States.

Awards and honors

In 2013, Weber received an Echo Music Prize for best instrumentalist of the year (piano/keyboard). In January 2014, he received the WDR Jazz Prize for jazz improvisation.