JP Weber

Live 2025 JP Weber

“JP Weber is an absolute exceptional artist – in the literal sense and in all the worlds he moves in, which could hardly be more different from one another: As a speaker of cabaret-level brilliance, a singing multi-instrumentalist, and a composer of songs that have become woven into the very DNA of Cologne’s cultural tradition, he is one of the most successful soloists of the Cologne Carnival, rightly honored with the highest accolades the cathedral city has to offer in this field. At the same time, however, he shines just as brightly in musical realms of entirely different colors. Already as a (wonder) child, he stood on stage – earning recognition and enthusiasm – together with local and international jazz greats (TM Stevens, Tommy Harris, Lulo Reinhard, Häns‘che Weiss, B.B. King, among many others). In the decades that followed, he continued to perform live around the world with legends of jazz and popular music, playing hundreds of concerts for hundreds of thousands of people and refining countless successful music productions with his skill.

When Norbert Lehmann bestowed upon him the honor, in the summer of 2025, of being invited to the legendary Ludwigsburg Analog Days, JPW faced a particular challenge: to distill, as if under a magnifying glass, what makes him extraordinary in each of his different artistic worlds. Because beyond all his impressive instrumental mastery and musical virtuosity, it is above all his ability to open the pot of emotions – ruthlessly so, with a force one simply cannot, and does not wish to, resist. He creates with ease a depth that hits straight and powerfully at the heart when listening, without ever feeling cloying, because he “doesn’t put on an ounce of an act,” as one would say in Cologne. He presents his way of feeling – unvarnished – on a silver platter, immersing himself completely in the moment, revealing with exuberant playfulness and technical brilliance a world of precious tenderness and musical dissolution into which he draws his audience. He does so in all the facets that the works he selects inherently offer, plus dimensions he adds in unusual and surprising ways.

For him, this is precisely the original spirit of jazz: choosing songs and then breathing new life into them, shaped by the influences he has absorbed over the past decades. Nimble-fingered gypsy swing meets wonderful standards, Cologne cultural gems sound like Italian/Mediterranean jazz-tinged folk songs, an old German Schlager appears dressed as a positively shaded saudade in the style of Fado, and the mother of all pop songs shines once again – powerful, new and completely unlike the thousand times you’ve heard it before – under his wings… And to conjure all this deeply moving magic, he needs nothing more than his voice and/or his guitar/mandolin. For the appreciative listener, meanwhile, even a simple record player is enough to partake in the very special pleasure JPW makes possible.”

Nathalie Bergdoll

As part of “Analogtage 2025,” Norbert Lehmann – a musician, sound engineer, and founder of the concert series “Analogtage” held at the world-famous Bauer Studios in Ludwigsburg, Germany, where spectacular concerts are live-streamed and recorded simultaneously – invited Ella to perform with a top-notch band. The spectacular first concert of the evening, performed by a small ensemble, was recorded live in front of an audience at the legendary Bauer Studios in Ludwigsburg using the demanding and technically challenging direct-to-2-track method and is now being released by Lehmann Audio in the form of a sonically outstanding 180-gram vinyl (33 RPM). Daniel Krieger (Schallplatten Schneid Technik, Frankfurt) is responsible for the Half-Speed Mastering.

Bauer Studios is the oldest privately owned studio in Germany. Stereo recordings have been made there since 1949 – at a time when the entire German broadcasting landscape was still broadcasting in mono. Over the past few decades, the Ludwigsburg-based studio has welcomed a steady stream of global jazz stars. The place has an almost magical effect on musicians. We recommend the use of "L'Art du Son" LP cleaner to wet wash your vinyl. Even new records of high quality production will benefit from this.