高瀬 アキ
composer pianist jazz musician
Raised in Tokyo, Takase studied music at Toho Gakuen School of Music.
Starting in 1978, she performed and recorded in the United States. Her collaborators included with Lester Bowie, David Liebman, and John Zorn. Since 1981, she performed repeatedly at the Berlin Jazz Festival in Germany. In various projects, Takase has dealt with famous jazz musicians: Duke Ellington (1990), Thelonious Monk (1994), Eric Dolphy (1998), West.C. Handy (2002), Fats Waller (2004), and Ornette Coleman (2006).
In 2002, Takase recorded with writer Yoko Tawada.
Takase had read some of Tawada"s poems, and, as the writer reported, she "started composing melodies and settings for my texts. When we got together, I read my poems in the same way that I always read them out loud.
Aki played, listened carefully to the poems, and started improvising." In later performances, Takase used more unconventional instruments when accompanying Tawada. Since 1987, Takase has lived in Berlin.