Remedy + Aki Takase

This is REMEDY’s fourth album on FSR after our self-titled debut in 2021, Vol. 2 in 2023, and Hipp Hipp Hooray in early 2025.
On the last recording, we celebrated trailblazing pianist of the past Jutta Hipp. This time around, we invited trailblazing pianist of the present Aki Takase to join forces with us.

Aki, born in Osaka, Japan, in 1948, is one of the leading jazz artists of her generation, touring and recording worldwide for nearly five decades. Living in Berlin since the late 1980s, she has received numerous awards for her music, including the Albert Mangelsdorff Prize in 2021.
Aki and I met in 1988 in the Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra (BCJO), co-led by her and future husband Alexander von Schlippenbach. Over the years, we played as a duo and with
various trio partners, Nobuyoshi Ino and Maria João among them.

I had the honor to be part of her “Fats Waller” project, which won the German Record Critics Award for Jazz Album of the Year in 2004. We toured Japan twice, first in 1996 in a special edition of the BCJO, and again in 2014, when Aki joined the ICP Orchestra as a guest.
On November 9, 1989, we shared a world-changing event when the Berlin Wall came down. Aki and I were performing a string of concerts behind the so-called iron curtain in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) with saxophonist Paul van Kemenade. Arriving in East Berlin on the fourth, we could already feel the revolutionary spirit at a demonstration of one million people on Alexanderplatz. Then, on the ninth, we watched the authorities open the border, and early the
next day, we witnessed the East Germans line up in pairs for miles to cross into West Berlin. To experience firsthand what a people united can achieve was deeply touching and created a bond between Aki and me that holds to this day.
Fast forward to 2024: REMEDY had a dozen concerts scheduled for Germany and Belgium. Prior to the tour, our group had only played and recorded original music together. When we received a grant from the German Musikfonds, it allowed us to commission a composer
beyond the band members. We chose Aki. Originally, we thought she’d write for the trio, but she surprised us by including the piano as an optional fourth voice, leading us to invite her to join our concert at Berlin’s Industriesalon Schöneweide and a recording session in the city two days later.
The quartet’s live performance on Easter Sunday afternoon, hosted by Jazzkeller 69 e.V. and organized by the legendary concert promoter Wolf-Peter “Assi” Glöde, was wonderful. The weather was sunny, and we had a big, receptive crowd. Then, on April 2nd, we went into the
Jazzanova Recording Studio in the Prenzlauer Berg section of the German capital. Expertly engineered by José Torelli, everybody had a ball playing together and creating the music you are hearing on this album, which includes three group improvisations and compositions by Aki, Joe Hertenstein, and myself.
Our pianist recommended photographer Fusayo Müller, who took beautiful pictures of us that day. Later, back in NYC, Jon Rosenberg did a great job (as always) mixing and mastering.
Many thanks to our executive producer, Maciej Karłowski, and designer Marcin Rzadkowski (SEMAFOR) – a musician’s true advocates.
Also, REMEDY is very grateful to the Musikfonds, which supported
us for a third time here. Finally, none of this would be possible without the support of our significant others: Daisy Payero, Ilse Pfeifer, Robin Rusch, and Alexander von Schlippenbach.
Thomas Heberer, NYC, June 23, 2025