Takase Aki

Plays Fats Waller Takase Aki

Aki Takase was born in Osaka and grew up in Tokyo. She alresady had piano- lessons when she was three years old. Piano was her main subject during her studies at the Tohogakuen University in Tokyo. 1979 she had a longer stay in the U. S. A. 1981 at the Jazz-festival in the philarmony of Berlin, the first celebrated performance with her trio featuring Takeo Moriyama and Nobuyoshi Ino in germany. Numerous concerts and recordings with DAVE LIEBMAN, SHEILA JORDAN, CECIL MCBEE, LESTER BOWIE, BOB MOSES, JOE HENDERSON, NIELS HENNING ORSTED PEDERSEN, JOHN ZORN and many more followed. In the ninetees she had very successfull duos with the singer MARIA JOAO, and with the saxophonist DAVID MURRAY. Work in trio with REGGIE WORKMANN and RASHIED ALI in duet with ALEX von SCHLIPPENBACH,. Actual is above all her co- operation with the bass- clarinettist RUDI MAHALL as well as with the lyricist YOKO TAWADA. From 1997 to 1999 she worked as guest-lecturer at the university for music 'Hanns Eisler ' in Berlin. In the year 2001 her 'W. C. Handy-Project' with Fred Frith, Rudi Mahall, Nils Wogram and Paul Lovens under the name 'St. Louis Blues' has been awarded the GERMAN CRITICS PRICE I/2002. The following project 'Aki Takase plays Fats Waller' with Eugene Chadbourne, Nils Wogram, Rudi Mahall, Paul Lovens and Thomas Heberer was awarded with Germanys most important ciritics award: Jahrespreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik 2004.