Aki Takase
Aki Takase feat. DJ Illvibe & Kofie da Vibe
Aki Takase – piano
DJ Illvibe – turntables, fx
Kofie da Vibe – dance
“Aki Takase is a force of nature at the piano. Her music is a sparkling, unpredictable celebration full of playfulness, visionary depth, and stylistic boundlessness.”
– Jazz Podium
Honored for her Lifetime Achievement with the German Jazz Prize 2026
Born in Osaka in 1948 and trained in Tokyo, Aki Takase has been shaping the international jazz world like few other artists for decades. Her pioneering style took her from Japan to the US, where she performed with giants like John Zorn and Joe Henderson, and straight to Europe, where she celebrated her sensational European debut at Jazzfest Berlin in 1981.
Whether as co-leader of the Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra alongside Alex von Schlippenbach or in high-caliber projects with global stars such as David Murray, Fred Frith, Louis Sclavis, or Han Bennink, Takase shatters all genre boundaries with her unmistakable virtuosity and creative curiosity. Her musical language is humorous, profound – and constantly in motion.
Her brilliance is reflected in an unprecedented list of honors. Alongside the SWR Jazz Prize and the Albert Mangelsdorff Prize, she has been awarded the German Jazz Prize multiple times, culminated by the German Jazz Prize 2026 for her lifetime achievement.
– Jazz avant-garde meets urban club culture: A fascinating trio that completely dissolves the boundaries between sound, beat, and dance, reinventing themselves together in the moment. –
Aki Takase, DJ Illvibe, and Kofie da Vibe met in 2018 and were immediately on the same wavelength.
Kofie da Vibe, whose dance roots lie in Hip Hop, Krump, and Afro Dance, and who further trained in contemporary dance and theater improvisation, has already toured Europe with various projects and won numerous battles.
The exceptional turntable artist DJ Illvibe – known from Seeed, Lychee Lassi, and Lord of The Amazing Panther – has long been driven by a single question: what happens when turntables stop being playback devices and become a fully-fledged instrument in their own right?
Sound, movement, and abstract storytelling merge to form a pulsating, multi-dimensional universe of sound and motion – powerful, visually striking, and unpredictable.
This cross-generational highlight invites the audience into the spaces between improvisation, physicality, and musical imagination.
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