Aki Takase & Han Bennink

The duo is a preferred instrumentation for Berlin-based Japanese pianist Aki Takase. Already during her first time in Europe in the 1980s she caused a sensation together with the Portuguese vocalist Maria João. Later, for example, a Louis Sclavis from France or a David Murray from the USA were partners for the musical dialogue, but also Silke Eberhard (saxophone) or Rudi Mahall (clarinet) from Berlin were happy to engage in an exchange with the pianist, as was her husband, the equally piano-playing Alexander von Schlippenach. Takase’s encounter with Dutch drummer Han Bennink, with whom she recorded the duo album with the tongue-in-cheek name “Two For Two” in 2011, was of special quality. Winking because, of course, it alludes to the Broadway song “Tea For Two,” which is then quietly echoed in the album’s opening title track. Takase and Bennink on the one hand virtually revel in the old pieces from the “Great American Songbook”, which they interpret equally swinging as the old school as with the proverbial mischievousness in the neck. On the other hand, the “special goodness” of the collaboration becomes apparent when they enter a terrain in which they probably know best: that of freely improvised music committed to the moment.