Aki Takase & Daniel Erdmann – Ellington (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 50:41 minutes | 431 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Enja Yellowbird
We hear juicy, fine and atmospheric jazz from two such unusual imitators, musicians and wonderful instrumentalists. Familiar themes take on completely new colors in their interpretation, especially since the closeness and intimacy of this musical encounter can be heard in their duo.
The nature of their interaction can hardly be described as anything other than telepathic. Inventiveness is combined with technical perfection. Aki Takase and Daniel Erdmann rehearsed together a lot and it shows. But above all, they have a lot to tell each other and us. The precision with which they master unison and rapid changes in tempo does not stand in the way of flying into the open, but rather opens the doors for it. What began during the pandemic with video connections between the Reims-based saxophonist and the pianist’s Berlin apartment was continued live. The two soon felt that with their duo record “Isn’t It Romantic?” We haven’t said everything yet, but we’ve just started. The desire for free, personal expression and admiration for the jazz tradition led Aki Takase and Daniel Erdmann almost instinctively to Ellington.
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Ingrid Laubrock & Aki Takase – Kasumi (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 50:05 minutes | 792 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Intakt Records
Jazz as the art of dialogue: two of the great musicians of today’s jazz from different continents and generations make music sparkle.
Born in Osaka in 1948, Aki Takase moved to Berlin where her musical partners included Han Bennink, evan Parker, Rudi Mahall, David Murray, Louis Sclavis and Fred Frith as well as her husband and pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach.
Ingrid Laubrock, born in 1970 in Stadlohn in North Rhine-Westphalia, moved to London at the age of 19 where she studied with the saxophonists Jean Toussaint and Dave Liebman. She has lived in Brooklyn since 2008. In her publications she shows a wide musical spectrum ranging from the quintet AntiHouse to the orchestral recordings of “Contemporary Chaos Practices” from 2018.
“Ingrid is one of my favorite saxophonists,” says Aki Takase. “She is a talented player with a lot of technique, very creative, smart and above all I love her dedicated approach to making music”. And Ingrid Laubrock says about Aki Takase: “It feels great to play with Aki. She’s so unique and the feeling of serious playfulness and communication I’m looking for musically is there immediately”.
The album Kasumi presents wonderful dialogues, which radiate joy, wit and warmth or hold the breath in silent intensity, so as not to break the spell.
Auge, Aki Takase, Christian Weber, Michael Griener – Auge (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 49:05 minutes | 513 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Intakt Records
“I really love the piano trio,” says Aki Takase, with a passion that mirrors her playing. “But not the old idea, where the pianist is king, and the bassist and the drummer are just sidemen. We are equal.” Indeed, all three musicians are in focus in the trio AUGE: bassist Christian Weber and drummer Michael Griener are among the most original virtuosos of their instruments. On Intakt they have presented brilliant albums with the New York saxophonist Ellery Eskelyn.
Christian Weber recorded albums with Co Streiff and Oliver Lake. Michael Griener is a member of the band Die Enttäuschung and Monks Casino with Alexander von Schlippenbach. Over the course of nearly four decades pianist Aki Takase has provided fresh impetus with different musicians such as reedists David Murray and Rudi Mahall or fellow pianist (and husband) Alexander von Schlippenbach.
The Berlin-based Chicago journalist Peter Margasak writes about the recording: “The music on the debut album from the collective trio AUGE is wide-open, operating from an unobstructed vista where every thing seems possible … Free improvisation rarely sounds so cogent, rippling with an adroit command of rhythm and harmony that erases the line between design and spontaneity.”
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Aki Takase & David Murray – Cherry / Sakura (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 50:48 minutes | 492 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Intakt Records
Over the years, pianist Aki Takase and reed player David Murray have amassed respective bodies of soul-stirring compositions, of which several pieces related to the rites of passage of middle age are included on Cherry / Sakura. As a result, this is a markedly different conversation than ever before; one that is more profound as the two musicians engage in an unsparing conversation about the defining issues of later life.
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Aki Takase – Hokusai Piano Solo (Live) (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 48:29 minutes | 414 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Intakt Records
Aki Takase, the Berlin-based pianist, is one of the great personalities of modern jazz. Moments of freedom, form and humour characterize this stylistically versatile avant-gardist, the stubborn virtuoso who toys with jazz traditions. In the year of her 70th birthday, Aki Takase was honoured with The Berlin Jazz Prize. Recorded over two days at the Sendesaal Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, the album includes some pieces captured live during the award ceremony, and some recorded in a studio setting in the same historic room.
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