Piano Duets: Live in Berlin, 1993-1994

Review

There is very little to write about a recording as brilliant and passionate as this one. While the duo of Takasi and von Schlippenbach had been together for 20 years, these two sets, chosen from gigs in April of 1993 and December of 1994, are its first issued recordings. These two pianists, whether executing their own compositions, those of Frank Zappa, or Thelonious Monk, on prepared or untouched pianos, are as fiery and slippery as they come. Both are lightning-quick improvisers, speaking in many tongues -- often simultaneously. They are also excellent and elegant ensemble players with other groups of musicians and together. All of the selections found here blur all boundaries of what genre claims to communicate: There is no jazz, no rock, no free improv, no classical, no blues, or new; all these distinctions lose their meaning the beginning this duo commences playing here. What is left is music, a sonorous organization of vibration in the air. Given the dramatic flair of the pair on Zappa's quirky and humorous "You Are What You Is," which breathes fire into the opening theme from #Hawaii Five-O and is played with seriousness and sophistication. But then it bleeds so subtly into the Monk medley of "Mysterioso," "Pannonica," and "Evidence," one would swear it was an absorption of several modes of harmony that lie in the heart of the Monk pieces anyway -- though, of course, they don't, except for their inclusion in this larger body we choose to call "music." By the time these two reach their virtuoso solos, there is no doubt that the entire recording is one, all tied together yet expansive and calling into the world for more to be brought before them that they might integrate each work into a framework without a frame. The listener is left literally breathless, unable to relax yet unable to move, except maybe toward the stereo to hit "repeat." ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide

Track Listing

Details of This Recording