Aki Takase - My Ellington

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2013
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 61:08
Size: 140,3 MB
Art: Front

(6:37)  1. The Mooche
(2:38)  2. A Little Max (Parfait)
(6:26)  3. Solitude
(6:10)  4. In a Mellow Tone/ Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me
(7:10)  5. Caravan
(3:40)  6. Lotus Pond
(5:38)  7. Love You Madly/ I Let a Song
(5:15)  8. I Got It Bad and That Ain't Go
(2:57)  9. Take the Coltrane
(3:28) 10. It Don't Mean a Thing
(2:53) 11. Fleurette Africaine
(3:18) 12. Battle Royal
(4:51) 13. Ad Lib On Nippon

Aki Takase, the Berlin-resident Japanese pianist, combines some very attractive virtues: a fearless relish for treading close to the edge, formidable technique, deep jazz knowledge, a shrewd sense of how to balance abstract improv and song structure, as well as a sense of humour. This riveting Duke Ellington-dedicated solo set (only one of the 13 tracks is a Takase original) cherishes timeless tunes such as The Mooche or Caravan, but also illuminates the path that leads from Ellington to Thelonious Monk, and from Monk to Cecil Taylor. The Mooche is very Monkish, but is also shaped by Takase's dynamic vision: the countermelody is played as plunging loud chords resolved in tiptoeing figures; the improvisation is a flicker of flinty runs, clangs, sinister low chords and blues turns. 

Takase imperceptibly sketches the melody of the ballad Solitude within ebbs and swells of chords, joins In a Mellotone to Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me with bouncing stride piano that dissolves into scalding Taylorisms, and sets the tune of Caravan stalking peremptorily in and out of rumbling low ostinatos. Fleurette Africaine is played as romantically as Ellington himself might have done, and a wild I Hear Music barges into the left-hand walk and splintered dissonances of Battle Royal. Free-jazz fans and Ellington admirers may rarely have been brought so close together. http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/jun/06/aki-takase-my-ellington-review

My Ellington

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