Song for Hope Aki Takase Trio

• 1 Monologue 09:34
• 2 Song for Hope 08:16
• 3 Minerva's Owl 06:24
• 4 Mountain Forest 13:41
• 5 Mountain Forest (Edit) 05:03
• Total Runtime 42:58

Info for Song for Hope

BBE Music welcomes pianist Aki Takase to the J Jazz Masterclass reissue series, with her 1982 live album ‘Song for Hope’.

A musician of poise and precision who has been a noted composer, performer and recording artist for over 40 years, Takase’s ‘Song for Hope’ continues BBE Music’s exploration of Japanese modern jazz from a golden period spanning the late 1960s to the mid-1980s.

The ‘Song for Hope’ album is taken from a recording of Takase’s debut European performance taped in November 1981 at the Berlin Jazz Festival and was originally issued in 1982 by Enja Records, a key European jazz label founded in Munich 1971 by Matthias Winckelmann and Horst Weber. On Enja, Takase found herself labelmates with some of the world’s leading jazz pianists like Mal Waldron, Dollar Brand and Randy Weston, and she followed in the footsteps of other leading Japanese artists on the label such as Terumasa Hino and Yosuke Yamashita.

The hypnotic title track was included on J Jazz vol. 3, and it features J Jazz stalwart Takeo Moriyama on drums, joined by Nobuyoshi Ino on bass. Moriyama’s career has been well documented on J Jazz vol. 1, and his sublime ‘East Plants’ album was reissued as part of the J Jazz Masterclass Series. Bassist Ino has been an active member of the Japanese jazz scene since the mid-1970s and has performed and recorded with many leading artists and groups including Fumio Itabashi, Masahiko Togashi, Hiromasa Suzuki, Masaru Imada and Masayuki Takayanagi.

Aki Takase was born in Osaka in 1948 and began playing piano aged 3. Raised in Tokyo, she studied classical music at the Toho Gakuen Academy, and her musical interests developed from a starting point in classical, before going on to encompass contemporary music and jazz. Among the first jazz compositions she explored were works by Charles Mingus and Ornette Coleman and, in 1972, she moved to New York, working with, among others, Lester Bowie, John Zorn and Dave Liebman.

She recorded her debut album for Seven Seas/King Records in 1978 and appeared on some key J Jazz album such as Yoshio Ikeda’s ‘Sketches of my Life’ and Seiichi Nakamura’s ‘Wolf’s Theme’. Takase has lived in Berlin since 1987 and is married to German pianist and composer Alexander von Schlippenbach, with whom she records and performs, sometimes as part of the Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra. She has also performed and recorded extensively with many other leading figures in contemporary jazz and improvised music including David Murray, Fred Frith, Evan Parker, and Maria João.

The J Jazz Masterclass Series is curated by Tony Higgins and Mike Peden for BBE Music.

Aki Takase, piano
Nobuyoshi Ino, double bass
Takeo Moriyama, drums

Produced by Horst Weber, Matthias Winckelmann

Aki Takase
was born in Osaka and studied music in Tokyo / Japan. From 1981 she gave concerts and recorded in the USA and Japan with Lester Bowie, Joe Henderson, John Zorn and others. In 1981 she gave her first European concert at the Berlin Jazz Festival. From 1988 with Alexander von Schlippenbach with the Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, also in a duo with Maria Joao. From 1994-1996 as a lecturer in the music department of the Berlin University of the Arts and from 1997-2000 a visiting professorship at the “Hans Eisler University of Music” in the subjects of piano and ensemble playing.

She plays concerts or records worldwide with Schlippenbach, David Murray, Rudi Mahall, Louis Sclavis, Daniel Erdmann and more. LOK.03” with von Schlippenbach and DJIIIVibe. “Fats Waller” project with Eugene Chadbourne, Nils Wogram, Rudi Mahall and Paul Lovens, or “Sound and Texts” with the writer Yoko Tawada, “The City in the Piano” with the dancer Yui Kawaguchi. Their new group “Japanic” with Daniel Erdmann, DJlllVibe, Carlos Bica, Dag Magnus Narvesen, as well as H.A.L Trio with Han Bennink and Louis Sclavis. “Carmen Rhapsody” with Mayumi Nakamura, Vincent Courtois and Daniel Erdmann.

2023 “Carmen Rhapsody” The CD was released in February by BMC Records. 2023 “AAPD” Duo” with Alexander von schlippenbach (Four Hands Piano Pieces) CD and LP were released in May by Trost Records. 2024 “ELLINGTON” with Daniel Erdmann was released in March by enja Records. 2024 Japanese “FORTE” will be released in April on BMC Records.

Takase was included in the quarterly lists of the German Record Critics' Prize eight times (1989-2017). In 2004 she was awarded the German Record Critics' Annual Prize for her CD "Aki Takase plays Fats Waller". She was awarded the Berliner Zeitung Critics' Prize in 1999 and the SWR Jazz Prize in 2002. In 2018 she was awarded the Berlin Jazz Prize. In 2021 the German Jazz Prize and the Albert Mangelsdorff Prize were awarded.

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