| Anna Webber | |
| Birth Date: | 26 November 1984 |
| Birth Place: | Vancouver, Canada |
| Genre: | Avant-garde jazz, free jazz, contemporary classical |
| Occupation: | Composer, saxophonist, flutist |
| Label: | Pi, Astral Spirits, Greenleaf Music, Out Of Your Head Records, Skirl, Pirouet Records |
Anna Kristin Webber is a Canadian saxophonist, flutist, and composer of avant-garde jazz based in Brooklyn.[1] A Guggenheim Award-winning composer,[2] Webber has released a number of critically-acclaimed albums as leader or co-leader, and received accolades for her work as saxophonist, flutist,[3] and arranger.[4]
Originally from British Columbia, Webber began her studies at Montreal's McGill University. In 2008, she moved to New York City[5] and began a master's degree at Manhattan School of Music.[6]
In 2010, Webber completed her master's, was awarded the Prix François-Marcaurelle at Montreal's L'OFF Festival,[7] and released her debut album as leader, Third Floor People Don't Need to Worry About Anything. Third Floor People features a cast of seven, with Webber as the fixed constant between two quartets: tracks feature either the "Montreal People" (Erik Hove, Jean-Sebastien Williams, Phil Melanson) or the "New York People" (Matt Holman, Owen Stewart, Fred Kennedy).[8]
Webber moved to Germany in 2011 to study with John Hollenbeck at the Jazz Institut Berlin. Hollenbeck later became a member of Webber's Simple Trio.[9] Webber first began working on compositions for big band while in the program, and completed her second master's degree in 2012.[10]
From 2013 to 2016, Webber's releases as leader alternated between her Percussive Mechanics septet and her Simple Trio. The self-titled Percussive Mechanics, featuring James Wylie, Elias Stemeseder, Julius Heise, Igor Spallati, Martin Kruemmling, and Max Andrzejewski, was released on Pirouet Records in 2013,[11] with the group's Refraction following two years later.[12] In 2014, Webber was awarded the prestigious BMI Foundation Charlie Parker Jazz Composition Prize[13] and released SIMPLE, the highly-lauded debut of her trio with John Hollenbeck and pianist Matt Mitchell, on Skirl Records.[14] Two years later, Binary was also released to great acclaim.[15]
In 2017, Webber received a New York Foundation for the Arts Canadian Women Artists’ Award,[16] and in 2018 she was awarded a Guggenheim Award for her work in music composition.
Webber's Clockwise (Pi, 2019) introduced a septet with Jeremy Viner, Jacob Garchik, Christopher Hoffman, Matt Mitchell, Chris Tordini, and Ches Smith. The album was included in the top ten of the 2019 NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll.[17]
The Webber/Morris Big Band, co-led with Angela Morris, released its debut Both Are True on Greenleaf Music in April 2020; the album was included in The New York Times 10 Best Jazz Albums of the year[18] and Bandcamp Daily's Best Jazz Albums of 2020.[19] Later that year she also released Rectangles (Out Of Your Head Records), featuring Marc Hannaford, Adam Hopkins, and Mark Ferber. The quartet's record was included among DownBeats Best Albums of 2020.[20]
Webber was a 2021 Berlin Prize Fellow[21] and a featured performer on Remy Le Boeuf's "Strata", a nominee for the 2021 Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition.[22]
Co-led projects include trios Jagged Spheres (with Elias Stemeseder, Devin Gray),[23] The Hero of Warchester (with Nathaniel Morgan, Liz Kosack),[24] and the COVID-recent TAC Trio (with Chris Tordini, Theo Bleckmann), as well as the acronymic quartet EAVE with Erik Hove, Vicky Mettler, and Evan Tighe.
Webber's work is often guided by conceptual constraints. Clockwise, the septet record she composed during the first of her two MacDowell residencies,[25] was informed by John Cage's works for percussion;[26] Binary was partly inspired by the now-defunct automated YouTube account Webdriver Torso,[27] and at times directed by the assignation of pitches and intervals to the numbers in Webber's IP address.
| Release year | Artist | Title | Label | Additional personnel | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Anna Webber | Third Floor People | Nowt | Erik Hove, Jean-Sebastien Williams, Phil Melanson, Matt Holman, Owen Stewart, Fred Kennedy | |
| 2013 | Anna Webber | Percussive Mechanics | Pirouet | James Wylie, Elias Stemeseder, Julius Heise, Igor Spallati, Martin Kruemmling, Max Andrzejewski | |
| 2014 | Anna Webber | SIMPLE | Skirl | Matt Mitchell, John Hollenbeck | |
| 2015 | Anna Webber's Percussive Mechanics | Refraction | Pirouet | James Wylie, Elias Stemeseder, Julius Heise, Igor Spallati, Martin Kruemmling, Max Andrzejewski | |
| 2016 | Anna Webber's Simple Trio | Binary | Skirl | Matt Mitchell, John Hollenbeck | |
| 2019 | Anna Webber | Clockwise | Pi | Jeremy Viner, Jacob Garchik, Christopher Hoffman, Matt Mitchell, Chris Tordini, Ches Smith | |
| 2020 | Anna Webber | Rectangles | Out Of Your Head Records | Marc Hannaford, Adam Hopkins, Mark Ferber | |
| 2020 | Webber/Morris Big Band | Both Are True | Greenleaf Music | Angela Morris, Jay Rattman, Charlotte Greve, Adam Schneit, Lisa Parrott, John Lake, Jake Henry, Adam O'Farrill, Kenny Warren, Tim Vaughn, Nick Grinder, Jen Baker, Reginald Chapman, Patricia Brennan, Dustin Carlson, Marc Hannaford, Adam Hopkins, Jeff Davis | |
| 2021 | Anna Webber | Idiom[28] | Pi | Disc One: Matt Mitchell, John Hollenbeck; Disc Two: Nathaniel Morgan, Yuma Uesaka, Adam O’Farrill, David Byrd-Marrow, Jacob Garchik, Erica Dicker, Joanna Mattrey, Mariel Roberts, Liz Kosack, Nick Dunston, Satoshi Takeishi, Eric Wubbels |
| Release year | Artist | Title | Label | Personnel | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Elias Stemeseder / Devin Gray / Anna Webber | Jagged Spheres[29] | Self-released | Stemeseder, Gray, Webber | |
| 2015 | The Hero of Warchester | The Hero of Warchester | Prom Night Records | Nathaniel Morgan, Liz Kosack, Anna Webber | |
| 2016 | Eave | EAVE | Astral Spirits | Erik Hove, Anna Webber, Vicky Mettler, Evan Tighe | |
| 2017 | Elias Stemeseder / Devin Gray / Anna Webber | Jagged Spheres II | Self-released | Stemeseder, Gray, Webber | |
| 2018 | The Hero of Warchester | The Four Americas | Self-released | Nathaniel Morgan, Liz Kosack, Anna Webber | |
| 2020 | TAC Trio | CIX | Self-released | Chris Tordini, Theo Bleckmann, Anna Webber |
| Release year | Leader | Title | Label | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Stefon Harris | Urbanus[30] | Blue Note | |
| 2011 | Daniel Jamieson's Danjam Orchestra | Sudden Appearance | OA2 Records | |
| 2014 | Noah Garabedian | Big Butter and the Eggmen | Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records | |
| 2015 | Guilhem Flouzat | Portraits | Sunnyside | |
| 2016 | Dan Weiss | Sixteen: Drummers Suite[31] | Pi Recordings | |
| 2017 | Matt Mitchell | A Pouting Grimace[32] | Pi | |
| 2017 | Jen Shyu | Song of Silver Geese[33] | Pi | |
| 2017 | Harris Eisenstadt | Recent Developments[34] | Songlines | |
| 2017 | Fabian Almazan / Realm of Possibilities | SWR New Jazz Meeting 2015[35] | Jazzhaus | |
| 2018 | Adam Hopkins | Crickets[36] | Out of Your Head Records | |
| 2018 | Ken Thomson | Sextet[37] | Panoramic Recordings | |
| 2018 | Katell Keineg / Jeff Taylor / Marike Van Dijk | The Stereography Project[38] | Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records | |
| 2018 | Enrique Haneine | The Mind's Mural[39] | Elegant Walk Records | |
| 2019 | Dave Douglas | Engage[40] | Greenleaf | |
| 2019 | Remy Le Boeuf | Assembly of Shadows[41] | Soundspore Records | |
| 2019 | Colin Hinton | Simulacra[42] | Panoramic Recordings | |
| 2020 | Raf Vertessen Quartet | LOI[43] | El Negocito Records | |
| 2022 | Trevor Dunn's Trio-Convulsant | Séances[44] | Pyroclastic Records |