Takase

From the first notes on, it's clear that Aki Takase has a great feel for Monk's music (partner Alex Schlippenbach shares her affinity). Takase's confident pianistics are outstanding throughout. Although just four of the ten numbers are from Thelonious' pen, the session itself is somehow permeated in Monk.
David Murray would seem to be a logical choice for a Charlie Rouse replacement, if Monk were alive today. He has always been a strong player with an infinite amount of energy and imagination. His musical contributions on numerous projects are always an added bonus. His tenor and bass clarinet work on this album are typical Murray, full of zest and spunk, probing, daring, and true to the roots melodic.

Aki Takase is making a real burden for herself with this the latest in her hopefully ongoing series of Intakt releases. With every successive one it's not just a simple matter of the quality going up but rather a matter of different facets of her ability being revealed. As these releases have all been documents of duos, the effect is almost rhetorical, as if she's intent on making a case for that sparse setting and what can be achieved in it.

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…”

Alexander von Schlippenbach - Schlippenbach Plays Monk (1997) {ENJA}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC+CUE+LOG -> 363 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 150 Mb | Artwork (web)
© 1997 ENJA Records | CD 9104-2
Jazz / Post Bop / Avant-Garde Jazz / Piano

Recorded during a German tour in 1996, Schlippenbach Plays Monk teams the esteemed pianist with Ino Nobuyoshi on bass and Sunny Murray on drums. Schlippenbach has played with both sidemen previously (Nobuyoshi can be heard with the Schlippenbach/Takase-led Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra and Murray on the excellent FMP album Smoke) but this tour was the first that brought them all together and the pairing brings an interesting dynamic to the often revisited Thelonious Monk songbook.

BBE Music presents J Jazz volume 3, the latest in its definitive compilation series exploring the finest modern jazz from Japan.

More than a decade ago, saxophonist-composer Ingrid Laubrock met pianist-composer Kris Davis at the recently shuttered historic hang Cornelia Street Cafe in downtown Manhattan, before Laubrock had moved to New York. Over the next years, Laubrock and Davis would inspire and challenge each other within varied musical contexts – and across a number of re-cordings – including Laubrock’s critically-acclaimed quintet Anti-House, as well as other traditional instrumental role-resistant small groups and sprawling orchestral settings.