"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."

"Born in Coos Bay, Oregon, U.S.A. She received the Bachelor of Music degree in 1975 from the University of Oregon and in 1977 a degree in Vocal Performance from the School of Music in Stuttgart, Germany.

She has performed 20th century music as well as works written especially for her by composers A. Hölszky, B.Konrad, W.Dauner,H.J.Hespos, H.Zerbe and others. She was singer with the "Vienna Art Orchestra" from 1979 to 1990(20 LP/CDs). Her first solo LP "Timbre" received the annual German Critics Award in 1983 and was again released in´98 as a CD under the title "Filigree". Tours and CD recordings with Vocal Summit with B.McFerrin, J. Lee, J.Clayton and U. Dudziak. She composed music for the Freiburg Theater in Germany, and Burg Theater in Vienna, Austria, for radio-plays (german, swiss and austrian radios) and for film, acting and singing in all of these as well. She performed with austrian poet Ernst Jandl from 1983 until 1999. Since 1990 she performs with the vocal quartet "Timbre", since 1995 with Joëlle Léandre(b), Fritz Hauser (dr), Urs Leimgruber(s), and Heiri Känzig,(b). Diverse music projects, concerts, radio and cd recordings with Jon Rose (v/comp), Hannes Zerbe (p/comp), Patrick Scheyder (p), Vladimir Tarasov (dr), Joachim Kuehn(p), Aki Takase(p), Anthony Braxton (sax/fl/comp) and the European Chaos String Quintet as well as performances with artist, Koho Mori. She has done commissioned works, radio plays and has sung as soloist in performance art projects as well as in collaboration with various dancers.

Since 1974 she travels extensively with different groups performing at most of the reknowned music festivals in Europe, Russia, USA, Canada and parts of Africa. Since 1982 she continues to sing in Japan in concerts and recordings with different japanese artists. She lives in Germany since 1974."