In Between Festivals

Aki Takase and Rudi Mahall with „Evergreen“

Aki Takase und Rudi Mahall © In Between Festivals

Aki Takase immersed in the musical traditions of native Japan. Pianist and composer, one of the most versatile and prominent figures of contemporary jazz and improvised music .

Rudi Mahall is a German bass clarinettist. Educated as a classical muscisian he switched to contemporary music , improvisation and jazz .

Rudi Mahall und Aki Takase © In Between Festivals

„Aki Takase and Rudi Mahall address the roots of some terrific standards without compromising their own integrity. It takes some doing to be redoing the old standards today and making something fresh out of them. Aki and Rudi do that. It’s not that the songs are rearranged or given radical facelifts. They are played with some reverence, yet each rendition is filled with improvisations in and around the songs, improvisations that express the performers’ unique gift of the art – undiluted, fully living and present in a way that stays in the mind long after the listening is done.” –Grego Applegate Edwards, Cadence, USA