Aki Takase's Fats Waller project - live in Hamburg 2008

Continuing with the bass clarinetists, the time has come to have a listen to Rudi Mahall. Actually, he's a sideman for this project, which is headed by brilliant Japanese pianist Aki Takase.

This is a delightful way to appropriate the jazz tradition, in this case Fats Waller. One might think that this group of Berlin avantguardists might not be the right people to do so, but thinking it over, there is a legacy of collective improvisation linking the early practitioners to today's free jazzers so if this project might sound odd on paper, in practice it comes off very well.

A motley crew on this one:

Nils Wogram,tb
Rudi Mahall,bcl
Aki Takase,p
Eugene Chadbourne,g,banjo,voc
Paul Lovens,dr
Fats Waller,comp

All in all, Fats' Boys (well, almost). The added outsider chap to this crew of Berlin residents is of course lovable eccentric Eugene Chadbourne who gets to do the vocals on a couple of tracks and proves that the banjo is perfectly OK in this setting.

The tunes:

1 Lookin' Good, But Feelin' Bad 5:56
2 Handful Of Keys / Announcement AT 7:39
3 Jitterbug Waltz / Hold Tight (Want Some Seafood Mama) 7:53
4 Viper's Drag 8:55
5 Medley: Ain't Misbehavin' / Way Down South Where The Blues Began (W.C.Handy,comp) / Honeysuckle Rose / Announcement AT 14:50
6 Announcement Speaker 1:08
7 Two Sleepy People (HoagyCarmichael,comp) / Lookin' Good, But Feelin' Bad 2:27

Recorded live on February-21, 008 in Hamburg, Germany, at NDR, Rolf-Liebermann-Studio,
2008. Top sound from FM radio.

The cd version received the German jazz critics' award in 2004.

Another golden Dime. It has dropped off the tracker, so I've no idea who taped/uploaded this one.

They played here two years ago, but I wasn't there. I keep wondering where my head was at at the time.

If this one catches on, we do have some more Aki Takase up our sleeve.

Fun is guaranteed for all!