Ellington

Description

The Japanese pianist Aki Takase, based in Berlin, and the saxophonist Daniel Erdmann, who received the prestigious SWR Jazz award in the fall of 2020 just before the lockdown, met for the first time in the mid-90s when Takase was teaching improvisation at the Musikhochschule in Berlin "Hanns Eisler," where Daniel Erdmann was studying at the time. Subsequently, Aki Takase invited Daniel Erdmann to play in her sextet, composed of some of the most remarkable musicians from the Berlin scene of the 90s, such as Rudi Mahall and Tony Buck. Aki Takase and Daniel Erdmann, who had been living for many years in Reims in Champagne, randomly met at the airport in Paris. There, they agreed to finally play together again. That same year, they formed the quintet "Japanese," which released the album "Thema Prima" in 2019. The two began their duo collaboration in 2019 and intensified it during the first lockdown caused by the coronavirus in the spring of 2020. Daniel Erdmann, at home in Reims, Aki Takase in Berlin, rehearsed together every Wednesday for a quarter via Zoom. Despite the restrictions and technical hurdles, they both say, the ensemble had one positive point: total focus on the project. Then, when a small window of opportunity to travel opened in the summer, they both found themselves in Budapest to record an album over three days at the BMC Records studio in Budapest in early August. Just before the recording in the Hungarian capital, the two gave a streaming concert at the Berlin club A-Trane, which was recorded by the public radio RBB. A French premiere of the concert had already taken place in November 2019 as part of the Jazzdor festival in Strasbourg. In early June 2021, Aki Takase and Daniel Erdmann received the first German jazz award. "Complex chords and sovereign melodies, all in a conspiratorial balance, where the protagonists cross the finish line hand in hand like two runners. In the end, you leave the duo with the desire to dance." --- TÉLÉRAMA ---.