Pianist Aki Takase, who turns 74 this month, occupies a unique place in the pantheon of international music, in the course of several decades having produced a fascinating and eclectic collection of music. While tackling major projects reinterpreting Fats Waller, Eric Dolphy, Ornette Coleman and Duke Ellington, alongside numerous other recordings as a leader in a broad range of genres, free and composed, Takase's latest recordings focus on small groups performing a mix of original compositions and free improvisations, each reflecting a slightly different side of her work, but each supplying a series of near-perfect vignettes.
What is striking about Auge is the total command of all three players, with bassist Christian Weber and drummer Michael Griener, each of whom has worked separately with the pianist, meshing singularly as a unit. Takase composed 4 of the 14 short pieces, the others being freely improvised, yet what is most conspicuous are the stunning group sound, changes in rhythm and tempo and laser-sharp way in which the players anticipate each other's moves. Each track sports special delights, with nuance, flexibility, shimmering beauty and technical prowess holding sway. All of these characteristics occur regularly in pieces averaging only around three minutes apiece, so that in almost John Zorn-like fashion, one is pulled into a spontaneously phantasmagoric sound show. Opener "Last Winter" focuses on sound and silence, with slow, thoughtful lines, followed by Takase's tumultuous "Drops of Light", where bass and drums furiously keep pace with the pianist as she races to freedom with alacrity. Delights abound, including fiery closer "The End Justifies the Means", in which the pianist, in just over two minutes, leads the group furiously with breathless intensity. On "Who's Going to Bell the Cat", Griener's forceful solo seamlessly tails a flowing Takase, leading to scraping sounds interspersed with contemplative piano. "Face the Bass" is a wonderful showcase for Griener and Weber, as the tune picks up and all push hard.
The duo of Takase and tenor/soprano saxophonist Daniel Erdmann on Isn't It Romantic? is more intimate. One cannot help but enjoy their version of the Richard Rodgers title track, which closes the album, the melody transformed, as Takase knows how to do so well, into a sort of off-beat time-changing rag on which Erdmann follows effortlessly on tenor. "Pascale" a Takase tour de force dedicated to Erdmann's wife, entertains a similar approach, as it opens gorgeously with an original melody, which starts unhurriedly as though it were a Houston Person ballad and by the end of the piece morphs into an intense, accelerating tempo, Takase and Erdmann in full sync. On Takase's "Magic", played in 5/4 at a blistering pace, soprano reigns supreme as it navigates changes quickly, after which piano takes it outside with blistering speed and never lets up. "No Particular Night or Morning" (a reference to science fiction novel Fahrenheit 451), another Takase original, exudes a buoyant ragtime feel while Erdmann's clever "An jeder Kreuzung liegt eine Erinnerung begraben" follows logically, its angular melody comprised of non-swinging fast quarter notes played feverishly in unison and repeated several times after interludes, using silence effectively as one of its wonders. Erdmann's "The Cat", opens with stunning a cappella tenor, joined halfway through by Takase and ending with a small "meow" from Erdmann's actual cat. Like its honoree, the piece is fast, slippery, and, ultimately, sly.