As the jazz-rock fusion movement gained ground from its early years in the late 1960s through its glory days in the early-to-mid-1970s—blending the more sophisticated harmonies of jazz with rock music's rhythmic power and high volume—all too often it was about muscular chops and complex writing for the sake of it. Little attention was paid to nuance and understatement. While guitarist John McLaughlin's high octane Mahavishnu Orchestra and keyboard player Chick Corea's guitar-centric incarnation of Return to Forever were tearing up the charts around the word, in Europe a different approach was taking place—something that didn't fit into the broader definition of fusion but, nevertheless, took advantage of the broader sonic textures afforded by technological innovation.

German bassist Eberhard Weber was already a known entity in Europe when he released his ECM debut, The Colours of Chloë in 1974. The double-bassist was a longtime musical companion of Wolfgang Dauner (even appearing on the keyboardist's one and only ECM album, 1970's Output), an in-demand session player on albums ranging from guitarist Joe Pass' Intercontinental (BASF, 1970) to violinist Stephane Grappelli's Afternoon in Paris (MPS, 1971). But with Chloë, the bassist came forth with a bold statement that announced a new voice on the contemporary jazz scene.

Weber brought a distinctive compositional style—as influenced by European classicism and contemporary minimalism as it was swing and improvisation—to the table. The music had, at times, an ethereal quality that, despite the appearance of pianist Rainer Brüninghaus' synthesizer, was more spacious, more temporally unfettered and absolutely distanced, in its attention to space and nuance, from fusion music of the time. Equally important, Weber introduced, on the side-long "No Motion Picture," a custom-designed and unmistakable electro-bass; a five-string, electric upright bass that sounded like a cross between a double-bass and a fretless electric.

The cominbation of Weber's unique sound and compositional approach made Chloë a jazz hit, garnering the prestigious German Grosser Deutcher Schallplattenpreis in 1975, and gaining the attention of musicians abroad, including fellow ECM artists vibraphonist Gary Burton, guitarists Ralph Towner and Pat Metheny, and saxophonist Jan Garbarek—not to mention Jaco Pastorius, the American bassist who was also redefining the role of the instrument in the fusion group Weather Report. Weber's approach couldn't have been more different than that of Pastorius, but the two shared both innovation on their instruments and—just as key, distinctive and, ultimately, memorable—compositional approaches that made their writing as groundbreaking as their playing.

The result of Chloë's success was a near-overnight leap in visibility for Weber, as he found himself recruited for other albums including Burton's Ring (ECM, 1974) (which also announced Metheny's arrival to an international audience), Towner's Solstice (ECM, 1975) and, a couple years later, Metheny's sophomore effort, Watercolours (ECM, 1977). Following an American tour with Burton, Weber was faced with a burning desire to take Chloë on the road and see where the music could go, and so he recruited Brüninghaus, Norwegian drummer Jon Christensen (who he'd met on Solstice, along with Garbarek) and, perhaps most importantly, American expat saxophonist Charlie Mariano, a musician with not only a deep command of the jazz vernacular, but an interest in music farther afield, including the music of India, adding exotic instruments like the South Indian nagaswaram to his more traditional alto and soprano saxophones.