Label: Intakt Records, 2021
Personnel - Aki Takase: piano; Christian Weber: bass; Michael Griener: drums.
The resourceful Japanese pianist/composer Aki Takase fronts this newly formed trio project, Auge, featuring Swiss bassist Christian Weber and German drummer Michael Griener, the same rhythm team that has been backing the tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin.
Evincing an intimate musical understanding that seems to have been forged in years, the threesome navigate the improvised realms of jazz with dexterity throughout 14 relatively short pieces whose durations range between the 1:30 and 6:30 minutes. Both from the pen of Takase, “Drops of Light” and “The Pillow Book” are pure rhythmic delights. While the former explores compulsive forward motions with dizzying cascading effects and crescendos, the latter is inundated with Monk-inspired riffs, evolving with a bouncing ecstasy.
There’s also the spontaneous “Motion in the Ocean”, impeccably executed with rollicking rhythmic figures dynamically swelled by the briskness of left-hand crashing chords. A percussive blast happens. Yet, while the brushed effervescence in Griener’s drumming begins to show some roots, Weber installs a mad swing that is all stability. The pianist is the lucky one here, absorbing the perks of this environment to implant elaborated chops and pronounced melodic accentuations.
“Face of the Bass” is another group improvisation solely introduced by Weber. The piece soon becomes a duet with the addition of drums and then the piano completes the trio, leading to a chunky, if swirling, finale.
The fusion of avant-garde jazz with other stylistic elements is spotted on Takase’s “Are Eyes Open?” and “Calcagno”. The former piece sounds like a traditional folk song delineated with stimulating intervallic leaps, while the latter shows off a deliberate melodic fragmentation with a strong folk charisma and whose logic allows us to absorb it as a whole. These tunes prove the group capable of meeting both ends of the jazz spectrum. Going even further, the collectively imagined “Who’s Going to Bell the Cat?” is a cocktail of folk, funk, tango and free improv that comes to the table with a refined presentation.
The idea of multiplicity and unity is reinforced with “Last Winter”, the Paul Motian-esque divagation that opens the record, and “No Tears”, whose reflective stillness unexpectedly veers into a sort of polka before going astray to indefinite places.
This pleasurable first musical meeting deserves repeated listenings.
Grade A-
Favorite Tracks:
02- Drops of Light ► 10 - Motion in the Ocean ► 13 - Who’s Going to Bell the Cat?