"Aki Takase ( ) (born January 26, 1948) is a Japanese jazz pianist and composer.

Takase was born in Osaka and started to play piano at age 3. Raised in Tokyo, Takase studied classical piano at Toho Gakuen School of Music. Starting in 1978, she performed and recorded in the US. Her collaborators included with Lester Bowie, Sheila Jordan, David Liebman, and John Zorn. Her first Euopean appearance was in 1981 at the Berlin Jazz Festival in Germany. She instantly became one of the most sought after musicians, who was touring constantly the main international jazzfestivals.

For many years, she has been working with her husband Alexander von Schlippenbach, as well as with Eugene Chadbourne, Han Bennink, Evan Parker, Paul Lovens, Fred Frith and others, and in duets with Maria Jo‹o, David Murray and Rudi Mahall.

In various projects, Takase has dealt with famous jazz musicians: Duke Ellington (1990), Thelonious Monk (1994), Eric Dolphy (1998), W.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."

"Konrad "Conny" Bauer, born in Halle an der Saale in 1943, began making music as a teenager. After self-taught beginnings as a singer and guitarist in various bands, he studied trombone in Dresden. There he discovered jazz for himself. After completing his studies, he moved to Berlin and played among other things. in the "Modern Soul Band", later in the groups "FEZ", "Exis" and "Doppelmoppel". In 1974 Conny Bauer gave his first solo concert at the legendary Peitz Festival. Since then he has fascinated his audience with ever new sounds and surprising harmonies, which he creates with his characteristic polyphonic blowing techniques. The American music journalist John Corbett coined the term "conradisms" and described Bauer's music as "one of the most radical original voices in improvised music." Bauer toured Europe, the United States, South America and Japan. He played with internationally renowned improvisation musicians such as Gianluigi Trovesi (sax, cl), Peter Kowald (b) or Peter Brötzmann (sax) and is next to Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky (sax), Günter "Baby" Sommer (dr) and Uli Gumpert ( p) Founding member of the "Central Quartet"."