The Squid's Ear Magazine


Takase, Aki: Hokusai Piano Solo (Intakt)

Under the inspiration of Japanese painter Katsushika Hokusai, Berlin-based improvising pianist Aki Takase recorded these impressive works over two days at the Sendesaal Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, some live during an award ceremony where she was awarded The Berlin Jazz Prize, some in the studio, including a duo with pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Aki Takase-piano, Celesta

Alexander von Schlippenbach-piano (track 3)


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UPC: 7640120193270

Label: Intakt
Catalog ID: ITK327
Squidco Product Code: 27516

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2019
Country: Switzerland
Packaging: Jewel Case
Recorded live at Sendesaal Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, on June 26th, 2018, and at Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, on June 27th, 2018.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"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. The piece "Bach Factory" features Alexander von Schlippenbach as a guest and the Japanese author Yoko Tawada appears on Hokahoka Hokosai.

Aki Takase is inspired by the Japanese painter Katsushika Hokusai. For Aki Takase, Hokusai was a hugely passionate and brilliant artist with an experimental mind who lived only with and for his paintings. "Hokusai showed so many directions in painting, which is why I wanted to convey various colours in improvisation. Music is like a colour. For me, red and light-blue are gentle colours. These were the colours that I felt. That's my internal landscape. I feel a strong connection to Hokusai." "-Intakt


Artist Biographies

"Aki Takase ( ) (born January 26, 1948) is a Japanese jazz pianist and composer.

Takase was born in Osaka and started to play piano at age 3. Raised in Tokyo, Takase studied classical piano at Toho Gakuen School of Music. Starting in 1978, she performed and recorded in the US. Her collaborators included with Lester Bowie, Sheila Jordan, David Liebman, and John Zorn. Her first Euopean appearance was in 1981 at the Berlin Jazz Festival in Germany. She instantly became one of the most sought after musicians, who was touring constantly the main international jazzfestivals.

For many years, she has been working with her husband Alexander von Schlippenbach, as well as with Eugene Chadbourne, Han Bennink, Evan Parker, Paul Lovens, Fred Frith and others, and in duets with Maria Jo‹o, David Murray and Rudi Mahall.

In various projects, Takase has dealt with famous jazz musicians: Duke Ellington (1990), Thelonious Monk (1994), Eric Dolphy (1998), W.C. Handy (2002), Fats Waller (2004), and Ornette Coleman (2006).

In 2002, Takase recorded with writer Yoko Tawada. Takase had read some of Tawada's poems, and, as the writer reported, she "started composing melodies and settings for my texts. When we got together, I read my poems in the same way that I always read them out loud. Aki played, listened carefully to the poems, and started improvising." In later performances, Takase used more unconventional instruments when accompanying Tawada.

Since 1987, Takase has lived in Berlin."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aki_Takase)
3/25/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"One of Europe's premier free jazz bandleaders, pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach's music mixes free and contemporary classical elements, with his slashing solos often the link between the two in his compositions. Schlippenbach formed The Globe Unity Orchestra in 1966 to perform the piece"Globe Unity, which had been commissioned by the Berliner Jazztage.

He remained involved with the orchestra into the '80s. Schlippenbach began taking lessons at eight, and studied at the Staatliche Hochschule for Musik in Cologne with composers Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Rudolf Petzold. He played with Gunther Hampel in 1963, and was in Manfred Schoof's quintet from 1964 to 1967.Schlippenbach began heading various bands after 1967, among them 1970 trio with Evan Parker and Paul Lovens and a duo with Sven-Ake Johansson which they co-formed in 1976. Schlippenbach has also given many solos performances. In the late '80s, he formed the Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra,which has featured a number ofesteemed European avant-garde jazz musicians including Evan Parker, Paul Lovens, KennyWheeler, Misha Mengelberg and Aki Takase. During the 90`s Duo work with Tony Oxley, Sam Rivers and Aki Takase. 1999 started performance and radiorecording of Thelonius Monks complete works, (all the compositions) with Rudi Mahall and his group "Die Enttäuschung"."

-Alexander von Schlippenbach Website (http://www.avschlippenbach.com/)
3/25/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Crane 4:56

2. Hokusais Meer 4:41

3. Bach Factory 4:28

4. Live In Dream 3:43

5. Nihon Bridge In Edo 3:08

6. Hokusai Manga 2:39

7. Sketch Of Spring 2:37

8. Studies Of Gesture 2:02

9. Cherry 8:34

10. Silent Landscapes 5:04

11. Dr.Beat 4:21

12. Hokahoka Hokusai 2:14

Related Categories of Interest:


Intakt
Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
Piano & Keyboards
Unusual Vocal Forms
Solo Artist Recordings
Duo Recordings
Asian Improvisation & Jazz

Search for other titles on the label:
Intakt.


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